


Quintessent Entanglement Theory

by Tassos



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: All The Ships, Anal Fingering, Blow Jobs, Cunnilingus, Dating, Everyone is More Bi Than They Thought, F/F, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Hand Jobs, Heart-to-Heart, Kissing, M/M, Multi, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Polyamorous Voltron Paladins, Polyamory, Porn with Feelings, Post-Coital Cuddling, Season/Series 01, Sex, Sixsome, Team Bonding, Threesome, Trans Keith (Voltron), Vaginal Sex, Voltron Paladin to Paladin Psychic Bond, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-10 09:41:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 30,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17423471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tassos/pseuds/Tassos
Summary: After their first big battles against the Galra, the paladins have retreated to an abandoned planet to continue their training. Only it's not going well. They can't seem to recreate the bonds between themselves needed to form Voltron. When Allura makes an alternate suggestion for bonding, the paladins are skeptical and find themselves having to trust each other with more than they bargained for. But what they find might be the beginning of a six-way relationship they didn't know they needed.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lunarium](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/gifts).



> For this story, I have aged-up Pidge, Lance, and Hunk to all be 18, on the theory that Garrison students were late to post-High school age. There are a couple lines that reference their ages in the story, but I just wanted it to be clear.

"That was horrible!" Allura stormed onto the Castle's bridge radiating displeasure. Shiro watched her, careful not to make any sudden moves. His body went on high alert, prepared for anything, even as he knew intellectually that Allura wasn't an actual threat. Her anger was understandable even. She wasn't wrong. 

After all their initial successes at forming Voltron and repelling the Galra, it was like the team had spooked themselves with their own success. Today's practice formation had been their third attempt at training that echoed their very first weeks before they knew what they were doing. Only now, Shiro reflected, it was worse because they knew what it was supposed to feel like when they formed Voltron, and they were missing it. The most frustrating part was he couldn't put his finger on why they weren't connecting. Every time they missed just compounded the problems.

"It's like you've collectively forgotten everything about being paladins of Voltron in less time than it takes to fly from one planet to another! You're supposed to be past this!" Allura paced in front of the her station's dais. If she were an alien with a tail it would have been twitching.

Shiro tucked his helmet under his arm and was glad he'd told the others to get cleaned up before the debrief. They didn't need to listen to this. Hunk especially had been pretty rattled by their flight though the planet's canyons earlier. Lance and Keith had started up again, blaming each other and throwing insults back and forth that had real bite behind them. Once that had begun, Voltron had been thrown out of balance, and Pidge and Hunk hadn't been able to compensate. Nothing Shiro had said seemed to make a difference.

"We're tired," he said. "We need a break."

"A break!" Allura's eyes flashed in the blue lighting. Shiro stood stock still and kept his breathing and expression as neutral as possible. "The Galra can attack at any minute."

"It won't matter if they attack if we aren't ready, Princess. Ever since Balmera we've been pushing hard. The last three days have been our first without a crisis and we've spent all of it in our Lions. Rest is important too, especially if we need to like each other in order to form the Voltron bond."

Allura visibly reined herself in, taking a breath and folding her hands in front of her. "You were fine a few days ago," she said more calmly. "What happened?"

Shiro shrugged, forcing his shoulders to relax as he did so. "It's easy to have each others' back when were fighting the Galra. I don't know what's going on that it's so easy to fall apart when we're not."

"It means the bonds between you aren't strong enough," Allura said, annoyed but not angry anymore.

"We're trying our best," Shiro said, annoyed too, though whether with Allura's high expectations or with himself for not pulling the team together it was hard to say. Probably both. He ran a hand through his sweaty hair. All he wanted to do was take a shower and sleep off the rest of the day. 

The last of Allura's anger dropped away, replaced with that pinched worry that she often wore when she didn't think the rest of them were looking. "I know, Shiro. But the team has to try harder. Your best isn't enough if it means that Voltron can be broken apart so easily. I know you have a strong sense of purpose when fighting together, but the true power of Voltron can only be unleashed when each paladin acts as one with an unshakable bond both on and off the battlefield."

"I don't think it's going to be that easy," Shiro said with a sigh. "If you're asking for closeness that's going to take time."

"I'd be less worried if the five of you made any time for each other at all."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Outside of meal times and training you hardly talk to each other!" Allura waved a hand toward the rest of the Castle, presumably toward the others.

"Yes, we do," Shiro said.

" _You_ do," Allura said. "But Keith doesn't talk to anyone _but_ you, Pidge is off with her Lion, Hunk is complaining about the food and Lance, I don't even know what Lance gets up to."

"He hangs out with Hunk. Because they're friends," Shiro said with more bite that was perhaps diplomatic. Allura crossed her arms and gave him a very unimpressed look in return, and all right, Shiro could see her point if that was the only counter-argument he could muster. He took a breath to rein in his temper, and said, "I'll schedule more group training that's not in the Lions. We'll do some of those exercises Coran had us do at the beginning."

"You need more than exercises." Allura considered him, biting her lip with clearly more to say. "I wasn't going to suggest this right away, but I think it might be time to after all."

"Suggest what?" Shiro was immediately wary.

"In my father's time, the paladins of Voltron were great friends before they were chosen by their Lions. It helped them to form the bonds they needed to make Voltron the most powerful weapon in the universe. Their bond was so great that it rivaled the bonds they had in all their other relationships, even with their spouses."

Shiro's eyes narrowed, wondering just where she was going with this. "What are you getting at?"

"In time, the paladins' relationships between each other resembled that of spouses, an intimacy physical, mental, and emotional. When that happened they were invincible. My father explained it to me once, that you couldn't have one without the others, and that's where Voltron's true power came from."

Shiro's mind started spinning very quickly. He couldn't tell if he was surprised or not. At the Garrison, crews who were close often did better than those that weren't, and he could certainly attest to the feelings that came with spending five months in close quarters on the way to Kerberos. Understanding and fostering unit cohesion was a core part of officer training and were the reason Shiro spent so much time checking in with the team. But what he though Allura was suggesting? Now his mind supplied an additional meaning to checking-in that was definitely not in Garrison officer training.

Allura was watching for his reaction so Shiro very carefully kept his face professionally neutral. "I'm sorry, Princess, but I'm gonna need you to spell out for me exactly how you want us to accomplish that," he said.

"I'm talking about intimacy!" Allura repeated as if that helped. "You know, spilling your secrets, being comfortable and bonded, sharing what brings you together. Touching each other! None of you touch each other," she added a little wistfully. "You need to come together as closely as people willing to create life between them. Because that's what Voltron is. The embodiment of life within machine, created through quintessence to protect life and cherish it."

"You want us to have sex." Shiro raised an eyebrow at her.

"If humans do that for physical, emotional and mental intimacy, then yes. Do you?" Allura crossed her arms, her head tilting a little to the side.

"Yes," Shiro said slowly, his mind still going a mile a minute as every bad date he'd ever been on flashed before his eyes. "But asking us to sleep together is not going to force the level of intimacy you want from us. It could do the opposite. And it's not something I'm going to order anyone to do. We'll use the exercises Coran showed us."

"That's not good enough, Shiro! It hasn't worked!"

"We've been together for barely a month! The kind of intimacy you're talking about can take years!"

"I don't know what any of those time measurements mean but I do know that nothing will happen if you don't try at all!" Allura strode forward into Shiro's space, frustration evident in her movement. "We have to take out the Galra and we don't have time for coddling!"

"Princess." Shiro took a deep breath and held his ground. "I'm not saying we're not going to try, I'm saying we're not using sex as some training tool."

"Uh, guys?"

The abrupt entry of Lance's voice had both Shiro and Allura spinning to face the door that neither of them had noticed opening. The other four paladins were standing there, wide-eyed as they clearly had heard the last few minutes of their conversation. Hunk and Keith's jaws were hanging open and Pidge was inching backwards while Lance's expression quickly narrowed from surprise into suspicion.

"Just what exactly is going on here?"

Shiro felt an overwhelming case of shit hitting the fan in wildly unpredictable ways. He slapped a hand over his face and heaved a sigh. Great. Just great.

* * *

"I hated these team-building exercises at the Garrison. Do we really have to do this?"

"Yes."

"I'm really not good at balancing on beams. Can't we do the one that gets us over a wall instead?"

"No."

"I still think my idea was better. Would you stop pulling?" Lance jerked hard on the rope to counter his arm getting pulled off.

"I'm not -" Keith's protest was cut off by Lance's tug throwing him off balance. He only had a second to feel triumphant before Keith yanked back hard and sent Lance swaying. He bent over at the waist to try and keep his balance, flailing wildly, which jerked the rope behind him throwing Pidge off, and then all three of them were falling off the beams and onto the training room floor.

Lance lifted his head up enough to see Hunk at the end of the line looking sheepish, the rope at his feet where he'd dropped it, and Shiro at the other end, turning his implacable, disappointed gaze on Lance. He let his head fall back to the ground with a thunk. He hated disappointing Shiro. It was all Keith's fault.

Keith was glaring at him right now like it was _Lance's _fault, Lance could tell, but it wasn't. Ugh. Keith always had to jerk everyone around - and shit, now he was think about jerking and jerking off, and Keith with his sweaty hair was not anyone he wanted to associate with jerking off, ever. Allura. Allura was safe to think about, but she was watching from the gallery above, and when Lance lifted his head a little she was scowling with her version of the disappointed face. The little unhelpful part of his brain reminded Lance that she was the one who thought they - collective they - should have sex, and did that mean she liked Lance? Because her uniform did nothing to hide her curves and he could get behind that. Metaphorically. And literally.__

____

"Lance? Are you okay?" Shiro was suddenly standing over him, filling his field of vision. His expression hadn't changed much. Keith was muttering over to the side, and Pidge was muttering about how stupid team-building exercises were. She hated group work. Then Lance remembered that Pidge was a girl, and his brain kind of stopped for a minute unable to picture it even though she was _right there_.

"I'm fine," he mumbled, accepting Shiro's hand to help him sit up.

"I'm done." Pidge curled her arms around her knees, not really looking at any of them. Shiro studied her for a second - tick - whatever - and then took in Hunk who blushed where he was now sitting on the beam, and Keith who was halfway across the room against the wall, scowling.

Like that, Shiro's shoulders slumped, and his rigid commander face melted as he let out a sigh. "Yeah. Okay. Let's take a break."

A break was good, but Shiro didn't let them run off, though both Pidge and Keith tried. When he called them together again, both of them mulishly glared at everyone, which helped dispel the uncomfortable intrusive thoughts Lance was having about what they might look like naked. He didn't want to know! He'd seen Hunk naked and sneaked a peek, but that had been in the locker room and everyone did it. It wasn't like Lance was interested because girls were pretty much the only thing that turned his head. Not that Hunk wasn't nice to look at - he was! But he was Lance's friend first, and Allura wanted them all to bone and Lance did not want to be thinking about Hunk's dick or how his hands might feel because Shiro was talking now.

"I know it's been a rough week." Shiro managed to make it sound like it hadn't been a complete disaster. "But I really want us to end today on a high note. We're a team and we need to be able to pull together even when we're tired."

"Or we have to fuck each other?" Keith was the one to say it. He was hiding behind his hair but apparently glaring hard enough at Shiro to make him wince.

"No one is sleeping with anyone," Shiro said, the same thing he'd said after they'd walked in on him and Allura arguing. But then he made a frowny face as he heard what he said. "Unless you want to. You're all adults. It's none of my business, but no one is going to be forced to do anything."

"Apparently it's Allura's business," Pidge muttered.

Shiro sighed again. "She was trying to help. She didn't know what she was asking us." He looked them all over, and the thought just popped into Lance's head how handsome Shiro was, and how even though it was awkward and everything had been going wrong lately, Shiro wasn't giving up on them or yelling. 

He never did. He'd been Lance's hero before Voltron and now after being on Shiro's team he'd do pretty much anything for him. Even bone. Except that sounded kind of wrong to be crushing on your CO, but Lance was pretty much incapable of pulling the thought back. He couldn't remember the last time he was so horny, and why couldn't he just think about Allura and not his teammates? Except that was kind of weird too now that she said they should all sleep together - did that mean she liked him? Or was she trying to redirect?

"But she's not wrong that we need to strengthen our bonds. Our teamwork, I mean," Shiro went on, his cheeks pinking a little. 

"Can we do that without balancing on beams?" Hunk asked, with the touch of a whine in his voice. "I'm voting for Lance's idea."

"No," Keith said.

"I don't know either," Pidge said.

"What are you afraid of? Your biggest secret is out," Lance said, feeling a little indignant that his perfectly good team bonding idea was being dismissed.

"How about a compromise," Shiro broke in. "Instead of Truth or Dare, we go around and volunteer something about ourselves that we haven't told everyone yet. Then we'll call it a day." He sat down on the floor, and after a second - tick - whatever - the rest of them grudgingly followed. 

"I still think Truth or Dare would be better," Lance muttered, shooting a glare at Keith. Keith ignored him.

"Why don't you go first then," Shiro said to Lance. "Ask yourself a question."

"Uh . . ." Okay, so it was harder than it seemed when put on the spot like that. If he were playing for real, Lance would ask _someone else_ who they'd kiss first if they had to kiss one of the team. He'd been hoping Allura would be part of the game. "Hey, so why isn't Allura doing this with us?" he asked.

Immediately, Keith and Hunk groaned. "Can you just get on with it?" Pidge asked.

"All right, all right. I'm just saying. She's the one who wanted us to bang -"

"I'm pretty sure the answer to if she wants to kiss you is no," Hunk said.

"You don't know that!" Lance huffed.

"Guys. Let's stay on task here," Shiro interrupted. "You do bring up a good point, Lance. But let's just start with us. Tell us something you'd like us to know."

"Fine. Okay." Lance thought for a minute, then in the spirit of Truth or Dare said, "I've never kissed a boy."

The other four stared at him. Shiro raised his eyebrows, and Keith scowled again. Pidge rolled her eyes, and Hunk sat back on his hands and said, "I knew that already."

"Well you shouldn't count."

"Thanks, Lance," said Shiro. "Keith, you want to go next?"

"Fine." Keith tossed his hair, annoyed, and said. "I grew up in foster homes after my dad died when I was eight."

"Boring!" Lance said.

"Lance!"

"Oh come on. Ever since Allura said we should sleep together that's all I can think about! Don't tell me it's not the same for the rest of you."

"That doesn't mean we have to talk about it," Keith said.

"Lance-"

"But it's making everything weird!" Lance threw up his hands wondering why the rest of them couldn't see the problem. "We're going to be stuck wondering about each other, and I'm already horrified by wondering what Keith looks like naked."

"You- What?!" Keith jerked back, his eyes wide.

"Oh god, now I can't stop thinking about it," Hunk moaned.

"Guys!" Shiro tried, but Pidge was jumping up and leaving and Keith was staring at Lance horrified.

"You're thinking about me naked?!"

"Guys!" 

"Where's Pidge gone?" Allura had come in with Coran, arms crossed and demanding. Shiro shot Lance his disappointed look that had him shrugging in hopeful apology. 

"It's not like I want to," Lance said to Keith. "I don't even like boys!"

"Well you're going to have to learn!" Allura said sternly. "Intimacy among the paladins is essential for Voltron -"

"Princess," Shiro was on his feet now, cutting her off firmly but without raising his voice. "I appreciate your input, but you really need to let me handle this."

"I can't be here." And there went Keith, out the door, gone and gone.

Lance glanced over at Hunk who was crab walking out from between Shiro and Allura trying to make himself as small as possible.

"This isn't working Shiro," Allura snapped.

"Well, you haven't exactly given me the time and space I asked for," Shiro's tone was bordering on brusque. "We are not going to become close on command."

"Are we going to have another food fight?" Hunk raised his hand like he wasn't sure he wanted to be called on or not. "Because I already rearranged the kitchen how I like it so I'd really rather not."

Allura opened her mouth but Shiro got the first word in, keeping his eyes fixed on her. "No. We're not. And Princess, if you're trying to set up another us versus you situation, stop. We're all on the same side and we need to start acting like it."

Allura's mouth abruptly closed and her shoulders hunched inward.

Shiro let out a sigh, running his hand through his hair, his white bangs flopping over his eyes. "Look," he said. "You can't just walk in when it's hard and demand easy answers. You've got to trust that I know what I'm doing here. That's part of this too."

"I do trust you," Allura said.

Shiro's flat expression wasn't convinced. "Why don't we pick this up tomorrow after we've all had some time to rest and cool down." He glanced between Hunk and Lance. "Will one of you go check on Pidge? I'm going to go talk to Keith."

Allura stormed out not long after Shiro, and then it was Coran left with Hunk and Lance.

"So," Coran broke the uncomfortable silence that had settled. Lance didn't like the way he was eyeing him. "Were you thinking about me naked, too?"

"Oh god." Hunk slapped his hand over his eyes while Lance was caught flat-footed because actually he hadn't but now . . .

"We gotta go check on Pidge." He grabbed Hunk and they booked it.

* * *

Pidge was having trouble focusing on the programing in front of her. She'd finally gotten the hang of some of the Altean commands, but it still took concentration to make sure she was reading things right. When Hunk and Lance showed up a little later, she sighed and sat back in her chair. She did not want to deal with this.

"Go away."

"You okay?" Hunk asked instead of leaving. Lance was hanging back, arms crossed and looking sheepish.

"I'm fine. I'll be better if you go away." Pidge regarded Lance suspiciously. "You better not say anything."

"Not me!" Lance held up his hands defensively. "Keith stormed out too, and then Allura stormed in and fought with Shiro."

It was Hunk who said, "She really wants us to sleep together."

"Ugh." Pidge let her head fall into her hands so she didn't have to look at them. Either of them. "What's her deal?"

"I think it might be an Altean thing?" Hunk didn't sound sure. He came over and sat on the floor beside Pidge's chair facing away from the console toward her Lion.

"Maybe, she's horny," Lance ventured, adding when Pidge groaned, "What? I am. Aren't you?"

"That's why we have private rooms." Pidge glared at him. "I don't need to know about you - that."

Lance crossed his arms again, scowling at the floor. "Not talking about it is going to be worse. Everyone's so touchy."

"Sorry we're not all living up to your slutty standards," she snapped.

"Hey!"

"Guys!" Hunk interrupted them. 

"Sorry," Pidge said, sullenly. Lance still seemed hurt, but after a minute he sat across from Hunk with his knees up and his arms hanging loosely over them. If Pidge turned sideways in her chair they'd make a little circle.

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable," Lance said. "But that's kind of my point. We're not going to be comfortable unless we talk about it. It's not like we have anywhere to hide or other friends to talk to."

Pidge hadn't had friends since her family went missing - until Voltron that is. Though other than Shiro and maybe Hunk, she wasn't sure the rest of them were friends.

"Aren't you uncomfortable with the idea of sleeping with everyone?" Hunk asked, and Pidge looked over, but his question was directed at Lance, who shrugged.

"Well, yeah. Which makes it worse because I can't stop thinking about it, you know?" 

To Pidge's surprise, Hunk sighed and said, "Yeah. I know exactly what you mean. It's really disturbing."

They both sounded tired in their honesty, which made Pidge feel a little better actually, a little less alone that everything was weird between them.

"It'd still be cool to kiss Allura," Lance said in a wistful afterthought. 

Pidge could see it, him and Allura with their faces pressed together. Then, she wondered what it would feel like to have Allura pressed up against _her_ , feeling her soft lips meet Pidge's. The height difference might have to be thought through - and there was that uncomfortable feeling again, although it wasn't the same one that had driven her out of the training room. Then she'd felt the weight of the others possibly thinking about her that way. Now it was a warm squirm in her belly that Pidge recognized as want.

"But since she's not a paladin, who, uh, would you want to kiss out of us?" Hunk asked, carefully not looking at either of them by picking at his knee. Pidge darted a look a Lance, who froze like a deer caught in lights. He met Pidge's eyes for a moment and the surprise faded.

"That sounds an awful lot like a Truth or Dare question," he said, turning his attention back toward Hunk, who shrugged.

"I was for playing, remember?"

"Pidge?" Lance turned back to her.

"What?"

"I'm not going to answer unless we're all in here." Lance's eyes were very blue. He grinned a little, his trademark confidence on display, but the fact that he was asking, that he ducked his head when she took too long to answer. . .

And Pidge was curious. As much as part of her didn't want to know, the rest of her really did. Out from the weight of formal training time with Shiro, Allura, and Coran watching, it was easier to remember that she had kissed people before, had gone all the way once and to third base enough times that sex shouldn't be a weird topic to talk about with her friends. And they were her friends. She wanted them to be anyway. That might have been the hardest part to accept.

"Okay. I'm in," she said. She slid out of her chair and properly into the circle. "No weird dares."

"All right!" Lance clapped his hands together, and even Hunk had perked up, his face flushed darker with a blush. "Flight Team Nine is go for bonding."

"So, you pick truth right? My question first," Hunk said.

"Okay, yeah." Now that they were officially playing, all of Lance's nervousness had disappeared. "I'd pick you, Hunk."

"Me?" Now Hunk was the one flailing in surprise. "Why me?"

"Well, Keith would kill me. Pidge probably would, too," Lance shot a smile her way, and Pidge couldn't help but grin back, happy to know he had some sense, "and my brain kind of melts down when I think about kissing Shiro."

"So I'm your last choice."

"You're my first choice!"

"But you're just picking me because I'm safe!"

"That's a complement, Hunk," Pidge said. Both guys immediately turned toward her in spooky unison. "I'd pick you first, too. No offense, Lance."

"None, taken."

"But, but - " Hunk seemed baffled by this, looking between them. "No one ever picks me first! I'm the chubby kid no one wants."

"Who said that?" Lance abruptly sat up straight, outraged.

"No one had to _say_ it," Hunk said. "It's understood."

"Well, that's just stupid," Lance said, waving a hand as if he could wave away the sentiment. Hunk still didn't look convinced, and that's when Pidge felt a twinge in her chest, a sympathetic pang for his doubt.

"I'd pick you first because you make me feel comfortable," she said. "You don't think I'm weird when I go off on a science tangent and you've got this vibe of going with the flow."

Hunk blinked at her. "I think you're a little weird."

That made Pidge smile. "Well, I am," she said. "But it also doesn't scare you that I'm smarter than you. Most guys I've dated, even the ones who were in the same kinds of science classes as me, liked me fine right up until I'm better at something than them. Which is mostly everything." She darted a look towards Lance, because he was that type of guy, even if it was Keith he was hung up on. "It's really frustrating," she went on, "and I thought it was just that they didn't like me until I started at the Garrison as a boy and then I had no problems finding boys who were cool with me being smart. You've never treated me different even when you found out I was a girl."

"I knew you were a girl back at the Garrison? Or, I mean, I thought you were trans or something," Hunk said.

Pidge rolled her eyes. "You still didn't treat me different," she said. "Which pretty much proves my point." She glanced at Lance who was listening quietly, and a slow realization crept over her. "Actually, no one here has treated me differently for being a girl. That -" she took a breath, feeling a little shaken and more than a little exposed, unable to look at either of them as she admitted, "That means a lot to me."

"Why would we?" Lance asked. "I mean, you're still Pidge."

"Yeah, but if you're thinking about me naked, am I?" she asked. 

Lance opened his mouth, but then closed it, a frown on his face as he regarded her. Pidge knew just what he was doing, but her morbid need to know if how he looked at her would change was outweighing the uncomfortableness of his scrutiny. 

"I was honestly mostly thinking of you as a boy naked," he said at last, "and now I'm not, and okay, uh, don't take this the wrong way, but without actually seeing you naked, I'm not sure it's going to stick?"

Pidge was surprised by her own relief. "Oh," she said.

"That's weird, right?" Lance slapped a hand over his eyes.

"No, it's okay," and as she said it, it felt right. "I - I'm kind of glad actually."

"What?" Lance's hand slid off his face, and Hunk looked curious too.

Pidge tried to explain. "Even though I disguised myself at the Garrison, being a boy didn't really feel like a disguise. Sometimes it felt like the real me. As real as being girl is the real me, too. I don't want my genitals to dictate how people treat me, you know? Or like," she nodded at Hunk, "my body type. I'm still me inside, whatever's on the outside."

"That's beautiful," Hunk said, his eyes welling up and his voice thick. To her surprise, so were Lance's and they all kind of sat there for a moment in a shared companionship.

"So, uh, who's next?" Pidge asked eventually.

"Who would you kiss first, Hunk?" Lance asked. "Since we both answered."

Hunk swallowed and cleared his throat. "Uh, Pidge, I think." He darted a look at her, a cautious but hopeful smile on his face, and suddenly Pidge's heart was pounding. 

This was what she'd been afraid of in the training room. Suddenly becoming the girl, the target. But it was different now with their words between them like a life line, real and tangible between them.

"Do you -" She licked her lips. "Do you want to?"

The very air between the three of them stilled, and even though she'd asked Hunk, both of them were looking at Lance too, like he was as much a part of the question. When Lance looked as curious about his answer, Hunk nodded slowly.

Carefully, Pidge shifted to her knees and inched closer. Hunk did the same, though sitting back on his heels so he didn't tower over her. He didn't reach out, and he kept his eyes open. Pidge was the one who leaned in and rested a tentative hand on his warm shoulder for balance, who leaned up to press her lips to his.

They were dry and soft. His mouth was wider than hers, and when he began kissing back she felt the careful swipe of his tongue against the seam of her lips. Instinct had her opening her mouth, and then Hunk tilted his head slightly, and suddenly Pidge felt the air between them sucked away as Hunk leaned into the kiss. She gasped when his tongue brushed hers, sending a tingle straight down her spine to her core. 

The kiss concluded and they pulled away. Hunk had a hand on her waist, which Pidge was grateful for as she sat back. He was staring at her, breathing hard, looking a little stunned, which was pretty much in line with how Pidge felt. She felt like her whole body was awake where it had been happily celibate before. Hunk was a good kisser, and part of her wanted to lunge across the space between them and kiss him some more. 

"Wow, that was -" Hunk suddenly grinned this huge grin that managed to be happy and shy both.

"Yeah," Lanced breathed, looking a little stunned himself and he hadn't even kissed anyone. But he was looking at them with a little bit of a glazed expression, like he wanted to. 

Hunk must have seen it too, because he shuffled a little and leaned forward onto his hands to bridge the distance between him and Lance. "If you want -" He barely finished the word before Lance was lunging, his hands cradling Hunk's chin.

Pidge's heart rate didn't stop racing watching them. In fact she was pretty sure it was speeding up when Hunk gasped and she could see Lance slip him tongue. She rubbed her hands on her thighs, hyperaware of the throb that was building between her legs. There was no way in hell she would touch herself. Not here. Not in front of them. Kissing was one thing - and quiznack, they were kissing something fierce right in front of her. Pidge had the fleeting thought that this was not something she should be watching, except when they broke apart, breathing hard, Lance immediately turned toward _her_ because she wasn't a third wheel, she was part of this. Whatever this was going on right now.

She didn't have to think twice about leaning into the space Hunk made for her to kiss Lance. His lips were wet already, and he didn't waste time with closed lips. His mouth was mobile, and Pidge felt another surge of desire flood her body when her tongue met his, swept into his mouth. She felt fingers tangle in her hair and when they parted, Lance rested his forehead against hers for a moment before he let go and sat back, chest heaving. It was a good look on him.

The three of them took a minute to recover their breath. They were sitting closer than before, and when Hunk's fingers gently nudged Pidge's she opened her hand to take his. It felt as transgressive as the kiss, but also reassuring. Pidge held out her other hand to Lance, who took it, his smile turning small and pleased for a moment before widening into something big and brash. He laughed, taking Hunk's other hand and closing the circle.

"I don't know about you, but I'm beginning to see Allura's point," he said.

"Me too! I love you guys!" Hunk said, squeezing their hands. "That was okay? Right?" He suddenly looked worriedly between the two of them like they were going to snatch what had just happened away from him.

"Yeah." Pidge cleared her throat because something was sticking in it. Where their hands met felt electric. "Yeah, that was . . ." She didn't know how to finish that sentence. Wasn't sure she could because her throat was sticking again. 

It didn't seem to matter though. Hunk and Lance seemed to understand just fine.

* * *

Keith almost didn't let Shiro in. He thought about pretending he wasn't there, but then Shiro would actually go looking for him and since the Castle was huge, he'd probably go check the life signs first and find out that Keith was in his room after all. So he stuck his knife back under his pillow and opened the damn door.

Shiro was still in his armor from training. When Keith scowled at him, a little line formed between his eyebrows, the only sign of his frown. Without making it feel like he was pushing, he neatly stepped into Keith's room and let the door close behind him. Keith folded his arms across his chest and stared at the floor. Shiro had come to him. He sure as hell wasn't going to make it less awkward.

Of course, the problem was that Shiro actually knew him well enough to not crack under the silence. He let out a breath that couldn't properly be called a sigh and asked, "Do you mind if I sit down?"

"Do whatever you want," Keith said. Peeking through his bangs he watched as Shiro shoved the chest, back and arm plates of Keith's armor to the end of the bed and sat on the edge of the mattress. 

Shiro's frown smoothed away, but he gave it another minute before he asked, "You want to come sit with me and talk this out or are you going to make me work for it?"

Keith wanted to scowl, but since he was doing that already there wasn't much more anger he could project short of lashing out, which he didn't want to do to Shiro. He'd supposedly outgrown that phase before Shiro left for Kerberos, and even though Keith's temper had made a spectacular return after his disappearance, he still hadn't told Shiro the full story of how he'd been expelled from the Garrison and he didn't want to. With anyone else, he didn't care what they thought, but this was Shiro.

That didn't mean he was going to sit down though. Keith gave a frustrated huff and pushed his hair out of his eyes enough to give Shiro a glare and then started pacing because he had to _move_ or he'd explode.

"I'm fine," he said, even though he knew he didn't look fine and he didn't feel fine. But he'd always started these conversations trying to throw Shiro off the scent, and it never worked, but he wasn't about to break form now.

"As fine as you always are when you're upset about something," Shiro said dryly. Keith rolled his eyes a little, but his lips quirked. "You're gonna have to help me out here. There's a lot anyone would be upset about with how training went down."

Keith snorted. "Is Allura crazy? Did we end up allied to crazy aliens?"

"Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure Allura is quite serious about getting us to be closer to each other. I don't think it's gotten through how uncomfortable it's making us."

"You too?"

Shiro smiled a little, but it wasn't a happy smile. "I'm not opposed to sex in general, but I'm definitely opposed to making people sleep together as a bonding exercise." He eyed Keith for a moment. "I know Lance didn't help earlier, but I don't think he's wrong either. Now that the idea is out there, we need to talk about it."

Keith started pacing again. Ugh. Lance. What was his problem? "I can't believe he said that."

"About picturing everyone naked?"

"Yes!" Keith bit out because obviously. "I don't want him thinking about me like that. He doesn't know anything about what I look like naked!"

"Ah."

"'Ah,' what 'ah'? What's that supposed to mean?" Keith spun quickly to send another glare Shiro's way. He didn't like the pity he saw on his face. Or the way that Shiro stayed quiet the way he sometimes did when he was waiting for Keith to realize something. Well, Keith wasn't playing. "What!"

"Are you worried about how he'll react if he sees your body?"

"No!" Keith denied because that wasn't it at all. "I don't care if he knows. I'm not ashamed!"

"I didn't mean it like that," Shiro said.

"But he'll say something and crack some joke or be snotty about it like he is about everything else I do, and I have no idea why." Keith ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "Do you know why he hates me?" 

"He doesn't hate you," Shiro said, making it sound like the worst kind of platitude.

"He said I was his rival when we met. I barely knew who he was."

Shiro shrugged. "I can't say I know Lance well enough to know where it's all coming from, but from what I've seen he's trying very hard to make his mark on the universe and one way to do that is to aspire to be as good as the people he admires."

Keith's eyebrows hit his hairline. "You think he admires me?" 

"There's a lot about you to admire," Shiro said, grinning a little. "Maybe this is one thing Allura is right about. You two need to get to know each other better."

"But he's so, so, . . . " Keith fumbled for words, "Straight!"

Shiro laughed, a surprised bark that descended into a flurry of giggles. Keith tensed against it, waiting for the rebuke, but when Shiro just kept chuckling and then grinned at Keith like they were in on the same joke, he couldn't help but smile back, because it was Shiro. His chest felt tight all at once when a second later he realized that it was the first time he'd heard Shiro really laugh since he came back, and, fuck, he'd _missed_ it. Missed this - Shiro talking him through whatever was bugging him. Missed him.

"What?" But Keith didn't have the heart to put his annoyance into it.

"Your face when you said it." Keith was standing close enough that Shiro could grab Keith's arm and tug him down to sit on the bed beside him. He leaned in a little so that his shoulder, his flesh and blood one, was pressed up against Keith. "Lance is a good guy. His heart's in the right place."

"Not to me," Keith grumbled.

"Spend some time together. See if you can find some common ground."

"Go on a date."

"No, well, actually." Shiro looked off into the middle distance for a moment. "I guess that is what I'm saying." He turned back to Keith. "You don't have to sleep together, obviously, but yeah, dating may be what we need. All of us."

"Great." Keith flopped back on the bed, twisting a little so he wouldn't bang his head on the wall. He did not want to date Lance. The only person he wanted to date was sitting right beside him and he had no clue. "Who are you going to date?" he said with more petulance than he intended.

Shiro scooted back till he was leaning against the wall and gave Keith a knowing glance, which had Keith blushing and pointedly keeping his eyes on the ceiling. "Everyone eventually, if we do this," Shiro said. "But I think I need to start with Allura."

That made Keith lift his head a little in surprise. He shifted back to lean more comfortably against the end of the bed cubby.

Shiro shrugged. "She's as much a part of the team as the rest of us," he said.

"But you don't think it's . . . weird?"

"No weirder than the rest of it." Shiro was staring off again. "I mean, you feel it when we bond in Voltron, right? That little bit of awareness that's your Lion and that little bit that's everyone else, anticipating how you'll move so we move as one."

Keith wouldn't have described it that way. Voltron was . . . Well, he wasn't sure how he'd describe it at all really. Words and feelings had never been his things. It was mostly instinct until it went wrong and then it was bad instincts making everything worse. Lately in practice it had been mostly bad.

"When we went up against the robeasts and won, when everything just clicked like that. If we can do that again except better, stronger. That's worth working toward." Shiro caught Keith's eyes. "And I like you guys. I like spending time with everyone."

Keith felt his heart rate tick up. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Shiro smiled, but it faded quickly. "I still don't really remember the time I was a prisoner. Not all together. But in my dreams, sometimes," he said quietly, but then he didn't continue. Keith didn't need much imagination to fill in the gaps from what they knew. He knocked his knee into Shiro's leg to draw him out of staring at the wall again.

"We can spend more time together," he suggested. "If you want."

The corner of Shiro's mouth quirked. "Are you asking _me_ out on a date?"

Keith blushed again, but this time rolled his eyes. "It'd be less weird than dating Allura. Or Lance."

"So you like me because I'm not weird. Thanks." But Shiro's tone was playful, and Keith kneed him again a little harder.

"We're already friends, you idiot," he said.

"What about Hunk and Pidge?"

Keith gave it some thought. He didn't have a good feel for them, which made him frown up at the ceiling again as he realized that Shiro would probably say he needed to get to know them better too. But thinking about it didn't bother him the same way thinking about Lance did. "They're fine, I guess."

"'Fine, you guess,'" Shiro repeated, shaking his head a moment later with a rueful laugh.

"What?" Keith was ready to knee him again, wondering what it was _this_ time.

"You're still the same. You either can't stand someone or you barely think about them at all."

"I'm no good at being friends." Keith huffed because really, Shiro should know this by now.

"We're friends."

"You're different." Keith scowled behind his hair, crossing his arms. Shiro had always been the exception to every rule Keith thought he knew about the world. A touch on his knee made him start, and when he looked up, Shiro's expression was fond, carried by his shy smile and setting Keith's stomach tumbling and his heart fluttering. 

"You're a good friend, Keith," he said, and Keith's heart cracked a little even as the words warmed him because he wanted to be more than friends. But that was all he was ever going to get.

* * *

Hunk was nervous about training the next morning. After the whiplash of the day they'd had, from the disastrous training in their Lions to Allura and Shiro's arguments and the rollercoaster of talking with Lance and Pidge, he'd slept badly after an awkward dinner where Keith had asked Lance if he wanted to spar later, and Lance had narrowed his eyes in suspicion and asked if this was payback for earlier.

"No!" Keith nearly knocked his plate of food goo from the table. "I'm trying to, you know, bond."

"With a sword!" Lance had shouted. "That's not bonding! That's thinking about murder!" 

"Enough!" Shiro had intervened. Hunk and Pidge had exchanged a wary look, neither one of them wanting to get in the middle of another Lance-and-Keith spat. 

Of course, then Hunk had remembered kissing her earlier. Kissing! Hunk's heart fluttered in that new dating feeling of does she really like me or is she just being nice. But Lance had been there. He'd kissed Lance! And wow, now he was thinking of them naked again, only this time with more blankets. They could be cozy and naked with blankets, right? That would be pretty awesome actually. They should watch a movie together. If they had movies. The Alteans were really lacking in quality entertainment. 

The point was, Hunk usually wasn't a guy who was distracted by sex or thinking about girls - or boys he supposed. He'd never dated a boy but that hadn't stopped him from looking. And there had been that almost time with Garret back at the Garrison, but they'd never quite managed to get their day-passes lined up since they were in different years. But back to the point. 

The point, Hunk thought, as he slid into Yellow's cockpit and he felt his Lion do the mental equivalent of yawning and stretching, was that he might be the tiniest bit distracted with thoughts of Pidge's soft lips and Lance's hands on his cheeks. They'd been in outer space for weeks now, but between the Galra and the weird bathrooms, he hadn't exactly been taking very good care of himself, if you knew what he meant. Add in the knowledge that since they'd arrived on this planet for some downtime to train, they seemed to have lost their collective ability to coordinate Voltron, and his nerves were going a hundred and sixty and he hadn't left the hangar yet.

"Okay, team, let's move out," Shiro's voice came through the comms.

Their practice session began with flight maneuvers in their Lions. Shiro had them run through a couple of formations to get them used to tracking each other, and that was okay. Hunk wasn't the most graceful flyer and the others tended to have to compensate for him not being fast enough on the turns. Yellow helped him out as much as a robot Lion could, and Hunk more or less kept up. More in the open air of the savannah where the Castle was and less in the forested mountains to the south. He hated the mountains.

When Shiro gave the order to begin their turn toward them and accelerate, Hunk took a deep breath and told himself to concentrate. He wasn't going to crash today. He wasn't going to side-swipe Lance either. Or tangle in Pidge's wake. There were a lot of things that could go wrong. Hunk knew because they had already, and he was already sweating.

Leaning forward a little in his seat, he flexed his fingers on the controls and breathed out slowly as they rushed over the golden hues of the grasslands. Up ahead, the steely mountains, their base covered in rich green were steady on the horizon. They seemed so far away, but Hunk knew they'd be dominating his view screen before he knew it. Sure enough, he checked the reading on his console, the distance was rapidly counting down.

"Okay, Yellow, you ready?" he asked his Lion who felt warm and steady in the back of his mind. There was a new . . . something there too, tickling at Hunk's attention, but it didn't seem wrong or bad. Yellow was probably trying to tell him something, but Hunk didn't have time at the moment. Black was disappearing into the canyon that abruptly opened up through the trees, followed by Red and Green.

"I love this part!" Lance crowed as he and Blue led Yellow over the edge. Then they were in the narrow space between rock walls, and Hunk spent all his concentration on the foliage and canyon walls ahead of him.

"Keep in formation as best you can," Shiro reminded them. "And remember the order for the squeeze at the hammer-shaped peak. Hunk, you copy?"

"I go first," Hunk said dutifully. He pulled on the controls to swoop around a corner - _don't hit Lance, don't hit Lance, don't hit Lance_ \- with Yellow's awareness and that something bright in his mind.

"Whooo!" Lance cheered when they cleared it.

"We did it!" Hunk was astonished. He'd made the turns - and without a nudge from Yellow to bank before he slammed into a cliff face.

"Well done!" Shiro's voice was that perfect warm home feeling that never failed to make Hunk feel like bubbles were lifting him up. "All right, we're coming up on the Hammer. Get ready to adjust speed."

This was the part Hunk really hated. What Keith had named "the Hammer" was a mountain that looked like it had been cracked in two, right down the middle. The peak at the top of the left one was shaped like a hammer. The sheer canyon was only wide enough for them to fly in single file, and Shiro had them go though in a different order each time to practice changing speeds. 

Hunk's reflexes were not built for this kind of flying. Who was he kidding, he wasn't built for flying period. He barely made it through the mountains without throwing up every time.

Around the next ridge, a sea of tree tops opened up in the broad valley that crescendoed into the twin peaks. Hunk saw the distinctive hammer shape at the top and the scary shadow of the canyon and put on a burst of speed to get ahead of Lance. 

Shiro and Black were already zooming through with Keith and Red right on his heels, flawlessly. Pidge had slowed to give him space, not that Red really needed it, but it was always what messed up Hunk, adjusting for Green's change in speed with his own in the ten seconds it took to reach the canyon. He'd hit Pidge, he'd hit Lance, and that chip in the mountain cliff was him too. 

Hunk was rushing up on Green, all his attention on the distance counter, feeling Yellow and the spots of something extra ahead and behind that made him feel like the middle meatball in a meatball sandwich. Throttle back . . . Now. Something clicked in his head, too fast, too unfamiliar, but that sensation of rightness settled. Balanced. Then he was plummeting through the canyon after Pidge, right on the money. Before Hunk could really process it, Yellow was bursting free, chasing the others into the sky toward space.

"Did we do it?" he asked, incredulous that for the first time he wasn't a tumbling mess. The bright sky faded into space black.

"That was perfect!" Pidge said with glee.

"All right team, it's time to form Voltron!" Shiro in Black led them straight up. They fell into formation, and Hunk could feel the connection between them, that perfect balance that meant that this time, they would come together into the mightiest weapon in the universe. They had their mojo back! 

Voltron descended triumphant back to the planet's surface.

Hunk was so jazzed. "We're back, guys!" he shouted into the comms, feeling high on their success.

"Ready to kick Galra ass," Lance echoed his excitement.

"Just don't go actually kicking anything," Keith said dryly.

Shiro cut in then and got them started flying maneuvers. It was just like earlier only better because this time Hunk was confident that they wouldn't have any problems now that they were together as Voltron. With Yellow and the new meatball sandwich balancing act tying them together they were on fire. 

That is, until Shiro started calling the weapon formations that required more than basic coordination.

"Pidge, you're lagging!" Keith called when Green was slow on the sword call.

"Watch your balance, Lance!" Shiro called, when they raced toward the mountains again, in a braced form. 

"Hunk and I are in sync!" Lance protested.

"Both of you are working against Black and Red!" Shiro countered. "Slow down."

"We're Voltron, we shouldn't be having syncing problems!" Pidge's voice cut in, and now Hunk was beginning to sweat again. That tone from Pidge was not one he wanted to hear. "Green wants me to keep pushing with Yellow, but I'm not getting the same feeling from Red."

"Aren't we syncing right now?" Hunk checked his console readings, looking for an answer, but he still didn't really have much idea what most of them meant.

"It's like were not quite lining up," Shiro said. "Okay, everyone, concentrate on each other and your Lions. We're one team now as Voltron."

Hunk closed his eyes and focused on the feeling of Yellow in the back of his mind, on the meatball sandwich which now came with him. He thought about Shiro's steady voice, his faith that they could do this. Pidge's lips against his, dry and soft, the way she'd said she'd pick him first too, and then had. Lance's hands on his cheek, the trust in his eyes after he'd admitted his fears. Holding hands with both of them afterwards -

\- Voltron fell over. The Lions split apart on impact with the ground.

It happened so fast and was so jarring that Hunk barely had time to yell before he was sideways with a pain throbbing all up and down his left side. The others' surprise screamed through the comms.

"What happened?" "Something is way wronger than not syncing up!" "Paladins! What happened?!" Allura's voice cut through the chatter.

Hunk tried to ask Yellow in his mind but all he got was the feeling that he dropped the meatball sandwich on the floor and Yellow was not impressed.


	2. Chapter 2

The paladins were bruised and shaken up when they reported to the Castle's bridge. Allura felt the familiar roil of frustration buzz under her skin that had plagued her since they'd arrived on this planet for training. Nothing seemed to be going right, and Shiro was incapable of fixing it.

But mindful of their last argument, Allura kept quiet while the paladins assembled in front of the teledove dais. Shiro turned to the rest of them keeping his incredible calm in the face of such a disaster. 

"All right, I know everyone's a little beat up from how things ended, but before that, we were having a really good run. Thank you all for your hard work. I know it's been a strange couple of days, but I think we're on our way to strengthening our bonds and Voltron."

"Strengthening your bonds -" Allura couldn't keep quiet after all. "Did you not see what happened out there -"

"Princess, please," Shiro cut her off, half-turning toward her with a look that went far beyond his relatively mild tone. Allura straightened up, ready to argue for all she was worth. Shiro however never gave her a chance. "Focusing only on the negatives is not helpful, especially if it's at the expense of so much progress."

"What progress? Voltron collapsed." Keith voiced the thoughts that were swirling through Allura's mind.

"But we did form Voltron this time," Pidge pointed out.

"Yes," said Shiro. "And before that we did the best formation flying we've ever done in practice. Hunk had a nearly flawless run."

"I did?" Hunk perked up, then deflated. "I mean, I didn't hit anyone."

"You did," Shiro said, meeting Hunk's eyes, and Allura was surprised to find Hunk standing up straighter. "I'm really proud of the progress you've shown." 

"So what happened? I was feeling pretty good about everything right up to when we crashed," Lance said.

"Me too," said Pidge.

"I wasn't," Keith said. "Once we started to form Voltron it didn't feel like it did before. Lance kept pulling on me."

"Hey!"

"We were out of sync," Shiro said.

"That shouldn't be possible once you've formed Voltron," Allura said. 

"Well, we were," Keith said stubbornly.

"I'm not sure how to explain the feeling. Pidge, you mentioned a difference in the feedback you were getting from the Lions?"

Pidge nodded. "Yeah. I usually feel Green and Red talking to each other, or whatever you want to call that feeling, you know? But it wasn't really happening. I tried to run a diagnostic, but then we fell over."

"But you were good with Hunk, right? I was good with Hunk." Lance crossed his arms and sent a sideways glance at Keith.

"Hmm," Coran had his arms crossed and was stroking his mustache as he thought. "The bio-feedback link between the Lions while part of Voltron shouldn't be unbalanced like that. That's the whole point of Voltron."

"If Pidge and Keith weren't syncing, Voltron should have split apart much sooner," Allura added.

"I was having trouble too," Shiro said, making a face that implied he wasn't very happy about that. "When we focused on each other, I would have thought that would have solved the problem, not make it worse."

"Unless someone got distracted," Keith muttered, sending a sideways look back at Lance.

"What's that supposed the mean?" Lance's arms dropped as he voiced his outrage. Allura wanted to bash their heads together. They were always bickering!

"I don't know. You tell me. You're the one who was imagining everyone naked yesterday," Keith retorted.

To Allura's surprise, instead of snapping back, Lance's ears turned red and he glanced at Hunk.

Keith's jaw dropped. "You _were_!?"

"Not naked!" Lance recovered himself.

For his part Hunk didn't seem bothered by the statement like he had been yesterday. In fact, Allura's eyes narrowed as she studied him, his ears were red too. Allura was still learning human body language, but so far it wasn't that different from Altean.

"Hunk?" she asked. When he cringed in anticipation she knew her hunch was correct. "Were you thinking of Lance?"

"Yeees?" Hunk said it like he was unsure, pasting on a sheepish smile when he suddenly became the center of attention. "Lance and Pidge," he admitted, and when Pidge made a face and the silence dragged on as Shiro, Keith, Coran, and Allura looked between the three of them, he rushed on. "I'm sorry they were all I could think about because we made out yesterday and it was really nice."

"I'm sorry, what?" Shiro's eyebrows shot up under his bangs.

"Look, we kissed yesterday," Lance stepped in. "It's not a big deal."

"Not a big deal!" Allura couldn't believe how dense they were. "You kissed two of your fellow paladins and so you could only focus on them. That's what I've been trying to tell you! Intimacy enhances your bonds, but it won't help Voltron unless all the bonds are strengthened."

"Well, no time like the present," Coran said into the stunned silence. Allura rolled her eyes at the paladins who were standing around like mopperwoppers. Allura didn't know whether she wanted to scream in frustration or not. She reminded herself very sternly that she was a princess and this was all new to them. At least someone besides her was still thinking straight. Coran motioned for Lance to get on with it. "Go on then. Kiss Shiro and Keith."

"What?" Shiro was the first to recover and also the first to take a few steps back away from the others. "No."

"You have to now." Allura reined in her urge to shake him. She kept her voice reasonable. "The Voltron bonds need to be equal between all paladins."

"Forcing people to kiss is not the same thing as kissing because you want to," Shiro snapped, taking Allura by surprise. She'd never heard his voice rise in anger against anyone but the Galra before. "It's not going to happen. Not on my watch."

Allura looked to the other paladins for support, but they were all listening to Shiro. Pidge nodded in agreement when Shiro looked at her, which seemed to steady him. He'd regained his usual calm when he turned back to Allura and Coran.

"We'll figure something out. Human bonds don't have to be based on romance to be strong." Shiro stared Allura down, and she knew she wasn't going to convince him. He was surprisingly stubborn when he dug in on an idea. He'd been so adaptable up to now and listened to everyone's opinion before making decisions that his intransigence seemed out of character. But then, Allura supposed she hadn't known him all that long. Which she also supposed was part of the point he'd been trying to make.

Allura sighed, which seemed to be enough for Shiro. He dismissed the rest of the paladins but kept his focus on her. "Was there something else?" she asked. The other paladins all paused, watching them.

"I'd like to ask you on a date," Shiro said, adding when Allura made a confused face, "Dinner together, tomorrow. Just the two of us. You're right that we need to work this out, but we need to talk first."

Even with that explanation, Allura wasn't sure she understood what a date was. But she understood a peace offering when it was in front of her. "I accept."

* * *

A fragile peace broke out after that. It was making Keith nervous if he was honest. But if Shiro was all in on trying to make this bonding thing work then he was too, even if it was as uncomfortable as hell hiking through the undergrowth of the forest with Lance, trying to think of something to say. 

After Shiro had asked Allura out, Hunk had insisted that they all get a day off so he could make them a proper date meal. Keith was pretty sure he just wanted to avoid training, but all of them did after that last disaster. It had been really unsettling feeling the Voltron bond and feeling it off kilter at the same time. He was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to work like that, but then there was next to nothing he really understood about Voltron other than when they clicked it was amazing.

Hunk insisted that they find fresh ingredients and then grabbed both Keith and Lance by the elbow and ordered them to find him greens and fruit that wouldn't kill them with a fervor in his eyes that Keith wasn't willing to cross. Lance had caught his eye with the same fear of the chef, and it was one of those moments where he and Keith were on the same wavelength for a split second. It had only happened once before when they weren't fighting the Galra, and if Lance was willing to make the effort, well, Keith was too, he supposed. Even if Lance had turned him down once already.

They'd landed Blue at the edge of the forest that carpeted the base of the mountains where they'd been flying for training. The trees were tall and there was a surprising amount of undergrowth for getting so little sunlight on the forest floor. They each carried a mesh sack to fill with whatever fruits and nuts they could find. Descending the ramp and looking out at the forest, Keith had no idea where to begin.

"Hunk is nuts if he thinks we'll find anything in this," Lance said, mirroring Keith's thoughts. 

"Maybe we can find some animal tracks or something," Keith suggested. That was a thing in books and movies, wasn't it?

"I guess." Lance shrugged. "Should we split up?"

Keith glanced over, but Lance was still staring at the forest and it was impossible to tell what he meant by that. "Do you want to?" he asked carefully.

"Do you?" Lance returned, turning with an expression Keith couldn't interpret. Since the bonding explanation, Lance hadn't been jumping on Keith's every move. The flight in Blue had been quiet with both of them lost in their own thoughts.

"Well," Keith said slowly. "This is supposed to be a -" he cringed inwardly and changed his wording. "We're supposed to work on bonding."

Lance nodded. "Right, right, right." He turned back to the trees and heaved a sigh, sneaking another look Keith's way. "Right," he said again.

Keith kept very still, a little weirded out by it, if he was honest. He'd gotten used to Lance being loud and following up everything Keith said with a counterargument. One-on-one like this, he wasn't sure what to expect next.

"I guess we should go," he said, activating his bayard into his sword to use as a machete. Lance followed, and off into the forest they went. 

It wasn't long till Blue was out of sight. They hiked for about half an hour, each in their own thoughts without seeing much that looked like promising foodstuffs for Hunk.

Lance was the one to break the silence. "So. We should probably talk or something."

"What do you want to talk about?"

"I don't know. What do you want to talk about?"

Keith stopped and turned abruptly. "Why are you answering every question with a question?" Lance pulled up short and stared at him for a split second before his face took on a more familiar annoyance.

"You're the one answering everything with a question. Not me! What's your problem?"

"I don't have a problem!" Keith shouted.

The look Lance was giving him was skeptical, and he gestured around at the birds that were fleeing from the noise. 

Keith scowled. "I don't have a problem," he repeated at a more normal level. 

"Well, neither do I," said Lance. "I was trying to be nice."

Keith took a breath and reminded himself of what Shiro had said about Lance's heart being in the right place. "Okay, fine. Sorry." He knew he didn't sound very sorry, but it was the best he could do. "What kinds of things did you talk about with Pidge and Hunk?"

Lance crossed his arms and his eyes narrowed. "That's private."

Keith gave up. "Then you pick what we should talk about! I don't care!" He scowled, uncomfortable under Lance's continued scrutiny. "This is supposed to be like a date."

"Have you ever been on a date? Because from how it's going so far I'm guessing no."

Scowling harder, Keith pushed ahead into the undergrowth, ignoring Lance's "Ha! I knew it!" 

Dating at the Garrison had always been strained, since it was technically against the rules. People went out when they had passes to town and there was a lot of sneaking around. But you didn't need to date to sneak around.

Lance kept up with Keith, and the noise of them tramping though the woods drowned out any possibility of conversation for a few minutes. When a stubborn tangle of branches had them backtracking to find another path through, Lance caught up.

"No need to feel bad," he told Keith in the tone of voice that was designed to make him feel bad. "Not everyone is charming."

"If you think talking to me like that is going to make us bond, it's not working," Keith replied.

"I'm just saying that you have to be smooth with the ladies." Lance clapped his hand to Keith shoulder. 

Keith shrugged it off and hacked at the thorny young trees and vines in their path. "I like guys."

"Wha-" 

Keith smirked over his shoulder when he saw Lance's open-mouthed surprise. "And yes, I've kissed a guy before. And done -" Keith felt himself blushing and turned away, "- other stuff." He hacked and hacked and finally the vine in front of him broke. He pushed through searching the bushes and trees but only finding their decided lack of berries. When he couldn't take it any more he looked back to find Lance with his eyebrows drawn together, squinting at him like he was seeing Keith in a whole new light.

"Really?" he said.

Keith rolled his eyes and hacked at the next bunch of branches in front of him.

"I just - I didn't know. Huh." Lance scrambled after him. "So you and Allura -"

"Oh my god!" Keith spun around exasperated. "You are the only one with a crush on Allura! If you want to ask her out you should ask her and not get mad at me! I can't even breathe without you making it a big deal!"

"Hey! We're rivals!" Lance said as if that made any sense.

"We're not! I didn't even know who you were before you showed up when I rescued Shiro!"

"I rescued Shiro!"

"Pretty sure I was the one with the hover bike."

"Well, I was the one who Blue liked!"

"Aaargh!" Keith spun and slashed with all his power at the next bunch of vines and branches. They were as tangled up as this conversation. He wished he could cut through words the way his sword could cut through wood. 

"That's no way to make friends," Lance commented. 

"What do you want from me?!" Keith threw up his hands in despair. He had no idea what Lance wanted. He had no idea how to get past this endless bickering. He had no idea why Lance had to pick at him all the time.

For the second time, he made Lance speechless. Lance covered it by folding his arms defensively across his chest and glaring at the forest. When he didn't say anything, Keith made another inarticulate sound and started hacking again. He fumed silently, breaking a path for them through the branches with such intensity that he almost missed it when Lance spoke.

"You're just so good at everything you do. It drives me crazy!"

"What?"

Lance threw his hands up in a mirror of Keith a minute ago. "You! Good at everything! You're the best pilot at the Garrison! You fly the fastest Lion! You have a sword that you can use as easily as breathing while I'm still struggling to hit the mark in target practice with my bayard gun. Shiro listens to you. Allura too sometimes." He trailed off pointedly not looking at Keith. 

"I've known Shiro a long time," Keith said because that was the only part that he understood. "And I practice with my bayard every day."

"That's not what I mean!" Lance let out a frustrated groan. "It's just so hard being in your shadow!" 

Keith was about to protest, but he remembered what Shiro had said about Lance wanting to make his mark on the universe and kept quiet instead. Lance seemed to be done, however. His shoulders slumped. Keith was a loss for what to say. He tried to think of what Shiro would say.

"I'm not trying to show off," was what came out instead, an old familiar feeling blooming in his chest. Every friendship after his dad had died had crashed and burned because he was too good at something. His first set of foster parents always thought he was being a smart ass when he was just trying to fit in. That hadn't changed until he'd met Shiro, but even at the Garrison it had been hard. He hadn't had many friends.

"I know," Lance sighed, surprising him.

"You're good at things, too," Keith tried. 

"Like what?" Lance shot him a look daring him to come up with something. Keith froze because for a horrible second he couldn't.

"Well," he said to give himself time to think. "You are a good pilot."

"You don't have to say that."

"I'm not just saying it," Keith grumbled, folding his own arms across his chest because he kind of was.

"I bet you've never noticed anything else I even do."

"How is that my fault? I've known you a month and we've been busy. The only other thing I've seen you do is make jokes and talk about impressing Allura. We barely know each other!"

"Whose fault is that?!" Lance replied. "You don't talk to anyone but Shiro outside of training."

"I tried to share something yesterday but you didn't want to hear it!" 

They scowled at each other. Keith wanted to run off and leave Lance there to cool off from his judgmental attitude. So what if he only wanted to talk to Shiro? He was friends with Shiro! No one else seemed to want to talk to him. It was better if he just stayed out of their way.

"Sorry," Lance mumbled, the word coming out with protest. Nevertheless, Keith was surprised. 

"What?"

"I said, I'm sorry about yesterday! I was preoccupied and freaked out by all the sex talk and I'm pretty sure I wasn't thinking straight." Lance sighed at the end of his flood of words, an expectant, put-upon expression on his face.

"Okay." Keith wasn't sure what to say to that. "Thanks." He shifted uncomfortably, unsure what had caused this strange reversal.

"Are you going to say anything?" Lance was looking annoyed now.

"What should I say?" Keith was definitely out of his depth here, and he only felt worse when Lance squinted at him like he was finding him lacking. Which was funny after his whole rant about Keith being good at everything.

"You don't have siblings, do you?"

"Only in foster care and they didn't like me either."

For some reason that made Lance frown harder. He dropped his arms and put his hands on his hips. "This is where we make up. You have to apologize to me, too."

Keith stopped himself from saying For what?, since he was aware enough to realize that that would only lead to more yelling and he was sick of yelling. He took a deep breath and wished Shiro were there. "I'm sorry I've only been hanging out with Shiro."

"Okay. You're forgiven." 

"You too," Keith said, feeling silly but it seemed like the thing to say. His shoulders were still tense around his ears, but Lance appeared sincere. He licked his lips, and added cautiously, "I don't want to be your rival."

It seemed to surprise Lance, but he cautiously nodded back. "It's not really working out for us," he said, making Keith smile a little.

"No," Keith took a breath and then said the rest of what he needed to say, "I'm not really great at making friends, but I want this to work. I want Voltron to work. Just. Give me a chance." He held his breath, half-expecting another insult, but their little truce held.

Lance nodded, dropping his arms. "Yeah. Yeah I can do that. Same for me." 

Keith breathed freely at last, nodding his agreement. He tried out a smile, and Lance knocked his elbow into his. It was definitely getting too emotional between them. He glanced around the vines and bushes to break the tension. "You think we'll find some berries out here?" 

"Not a chance in hell," Lance said with feeling. By silent agreement, they turned back the way they'd come toward Blue. "Hunk will be disappointed."

"Shiro and Allura won't mind."

"Hmm. So, since you know Shiro," Lance said. "You think he and Allura . . ."

"Shiro's gay, too," Keith said, pushing a vine he'd hacked apart out of his way and holding it for Lance.

"Oh." It wasn't the same surprise he'd shown when Keith had come out to him. "I thought he was bi."

Keith shrugged, feeling like he really shouldn't be talking about Shiro like this. "You'd have to ask him. I've only ever seen him date guys."

"Oh." Lance fell silent. They pushed their way through the undergrowth for a while, the only noise their breathing and the crunch of branches and leaves beneath their feet. Eventually Lance asked, "Did you two ever . . . ?"

Keith felt his heart start beating faster. That was an answer he was definitely not prepared to share with Lance. "No," he said, but something must have come through in his voice because Lance was eyeing him from under his bangs. Keith cringed inwardly, expecting the worst but all Lance did was grin brightly and say, "Well maybe now's your chance. You know. With all the bonding we have to do."

The thought had crossed Keith's mind. It didn't make it any less terrifying. "Doesn't this bonding thing make you uncomfortable at all?" he asked to change the subject.

"No. Okay, yes," Lance amended when Keith raised an eyebrow at him. "I mean I want this to work too, but I'm still kind of worried you'll cut my head off if I kiss you."

"What about Allura?" Keith asked with a note of teasing that surprised himself.

"Oh man, she is so out of my league," Lance said wistfully. "I want her to like me for me though, you know? Not because we have to kiss so Voltron works. Not that I'd say no to kissing her. Kissing Hunk and Pidge was nice."

Keith thought about that as they continued on. He kept sneaking glances Lance's way, trying to figure out how he felt about kissing any of the others. Other than Shiro, he just couldn't see it, and it made him uncomfortable to think about. He got what Lance meant about wanting Allura to like him because of him and not because of all this. He wanted Shiro to see him the same way.

They finally reached Blue at the edge of the forest. They'd been gone maybe an half an hour though it felt like longer.

"Hey, Keith," Lance came to a stop and turned to face him. "Wow. This is weird." He made a face, and Keith tensed up. "If this is going to work, the Voltron bonding thing that Allura's worried about, we're going to have to - you know."

"Kiss." Keith felt his cheeks heat at the thought. Lance nodded, glancing away, and Keith relaxed a little at the sign that Lance was as weirded out by it as he was. Though really, Keith had kissed people knowing less about them than he did about Lance, and Lance was pretty good looking all things considered. "I'm okay with it," he said slowly.

"You are?" Lance's attention snapped to his face.

"I mean, not right now. I'm still not quite sure you're not going to bite my head off for looking at you." He shrugged, feeling exposed. "That time when the Galra attacked the Castle and you said our bonding moment didn't count, that was - I don't want you doing anything you don't mean or that you'll take back. This bonding thing is about trust."

"No laughing either," Lance said. "Just because I haven't kissed boys before."

It sounded like they were coming to an agreement, and Keith liked that addition. "No laughing," he agreed. "Though Hunk will be sad to hear he's not a boy."

"Except Hunk." Lance rolled his eyes. "Trust me when I say that Hunk is all boy. Not that I've looked except by accident in the locker room." 

"Of course not," Keith said, keeping his smile to himself as Lance started toward Blue. He was beginning to think that maybe Lance wasn't as straight as he'd first thought.

With a series of mechanical clunks, Blue's head lowered so they could board. Lance strapped himself into the pilot's seat and Keith grabbed onto the back to keep his balance. He needn't have bothered; Lance and Blue lifted off the ground with barely a tremble.

Keith wet his lips, then tried out saying, "That was a nice take-off."

Lance craned his neck around. "It was? I mean of course it was," he added in his usual arrogant tone, turning back to the controls. Keith relaxed a little more. He didn't understand Lance, but maybe they could do this anyway.

* * *

Shiro and Allura's dinner together was probably the most awkward date Shiro had ever been on. Hunk had cooked a fantastic meal from things he and Pidge had found, and Shiro had grabbed one of his blankets to make a picnic of it outside the Castle to watch the sunset. They'd started off with stilted conversation about the food. Allura's smalltalk was excellent. She was well versed in making the smallest details seem incredible, which probably came with the territory when you were a princess. 

Shiro waved the crunchy starchy potato like vegetable tuber. "It tastes like wakame," he said, since they were still talking about the food. He clarified at Allura's expression, "It's a type of seaweed from where I'm from." The mild sweetness cut with salt gave him a sudden sense-memory of home.

"We didn't have anything like it," Allura said, her expression shifting to a sad frown. "Altea was . . . " She trailed off, and Shiro kept quiet, giving her space.

"I can't imagine waking up and learning your whole planet is gone," he said quietly. "But I do know what it's like to be away from home and unable to go back."

Allura glanced at him, her eyes searching his. She held herself still, poised and as regal as when they first met, with only the light breeze plucking at strands of her hair.

"When I was first captured by the Galra, I fought so hard. I don't remember much, just a few memories here and there. But when I dream, sometimes I wake up feeling bruised." Shiro looked up at the sky. It was a deep purple, edging into orange on the horizon, and the stars were just starting to come out overhead.

"I want them to pay," Allura said quietly, her whole posture slumping. It was the first crack in her composure, and Shiro was reminded that for all her poise she was as young as they were. "I know I've been pushing you and the paladins hard, but I can't help but think that every moment we aren't fighting against the Galra is a moment that they are destroying someone else's home."

"Yeah." Shiro sighed, looking back at the sky. Any one of those stars could turn into a Galra cruiser at any moment. He understood where she was coming from. "But we have to remember that our strength comes from each other. We need you with us as we grow stronger, not against us and pushing before we're ready."

Allura let out a breath, brushing a stray hair out of her face. "I know. And I'm sorry for before. It's just so frustrating to have to sit by the side when there's a solution to becoming closer and watch you not take it."

Shiro thought of his days as a junior instructor and teaching assistant at the Garrison and found himself smiling a little. "It's different when it comes to kissing," he said. "What's Altean dating like? Don't you wait to find out if you like someone before kissing them?"

"It's all very proper for someone of my station," Allura said. "You speak with a matchmaker first, and then your parents have to meet and approve the suitors before you even meet each other. Because of the war, I never did any of that. By the time I was of age, Zarkon had already attacked and I was with my father trying to stop him."

Shiro's heart ached for her. "That must have been incredibly hard."

"It was." Her simple statement was reflected in her eyes when they met his.

"But you've had a crush on someone, right? Fooled around?" he asked.

"A crush?" she asked, but she sounded curious. Not everything translated, Shiro reminded himself.

"You know, found a boy or girl cute and like you wanted to talk with them all the time? Fantasized about kissing them."

At that Allura sat up straight again, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "That's a very personal question, Shiro."

"It is, isn't it," he said, raising a meaningful eyebrow and watching the moment his point struck home. "Kissing is really personal to humans. Most humans. It can change things between us. It's not something that's easy to jump into. It can be great but it's also scary, because what if the other person doesn't like you? If they're doing it because they have to then it doesn't mean the same thing."

Nodding slowly, Allura reached for Shiro's hand. "But you do understand that you must, don't you?" Her fingers were cool around his, cool and dry, but they held his hand in a firm grip that was as determined as the expression on her face. "Voltron must succeed. I know it's asking a lot, but we can do no less than offer everything we have to stop the Galra."

Shiro hesitated, his knee-jerk instinct to argue as he had been coming to the tip of his tongue, but he held it. "Voltron will succeed," he said. "But if we're going to do this, forge this intimacy, we have to do it at our pace and we need you to be part of it."

"But I'm not a paladin."

Shiro felt the uncomfortable itch that had followed him through every conversation they'd had about having to kiss or have sex or else. Allura and Coran just expected the humans to get on with it while they watched, as Allura said, from the sidelines. Judging them from afar. Criticizing when they didn't live up to their standards. Coran was weird enough that it just more weirdness from him, but from Allura it edged into other uncomfortable memories from Shiro's dreams.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "You're part of the team. You can't order us to do this unless you're willing to do it too." Maybe the others didn't need that, but Shiro did. He looked down at the hand she still held, raised his metal hand from where he was leaning against it so she could see it, too. "I had my arm taken from me because the Galra could do what they wanted to me."

"Shiro!" Allura pulled back, horrified. "I would never -"

"I know. But that's what it feels like." He searched her eyes, reassured by her reaction, but still uncertain. "You're not our puppet master. You have to be in this with us."

She was quiet for a moment, taking that in. Then, Allura nodded, swift and decisive. Shifting to her knees, she faced Shiro directly. "Shiro. I'm sorry I haven't fully grasped the situation till now. I respect you, and the last thing I want to do is to make you feel like I don't. I hope you can find it in you to forgive me."

It wasn't the response he'd been going for, but Allura meant it, and he had to respect her determination to make it right. He sat up mirroring her and said, "Yes. Of course. I know you're coming at this from a good place. We've just been talking past each other." He smiled to take any sting out of his words, and Allura responded in kind. Her hands fluttered for a moment like she wasn't sure what to do with them. Then, before Shiro could say anything, she reached for both of his hands, holding flesh and metal as easily as the other.

"You're right," she said, staring at their hands. "This isn't as easy as I was expecting. Shiro," she said bringing her chin up and looking him in the eye. "Would you do me the honor of accepting my kiss?"

Allura was lovely in the last light of day. Her white hair glowed warmly in the sun's last rays, her brown skin softened by the light in counterpoint to the steel in her eyes. But there was more there too, as understandable as if she were human. Anticipation, worry he might say no, hope he would say yes. It was a peace offering and a promise.

"Yes," Shiro said, giving a short bow to seal his acceptance. Allura's eyes shone.

He leaned in and met her in the middle, their lips touching in a soft press. She smelled of flowers, light and airy, and Shiro couldn't help but smile as he pulled away, his own relief falling from his shoulders.

"Was that okay?" Allura asked, her nerves coming back.

"Yeah. Yeah, that was perfect." Shiro smiled again.

"You're the first person I've kissed," Allura admitted into the space between them. They were still holding hands, and it didn't take much for Shiro to bump his forehead against hers. This is what could make kissing special. Her words were a gift, a secret shared that asked for one in kind.

"You're the first woman, I've kissed," Shiro said, happy to give it.

* * *

Hunk collapsed in the lounge with a groan, feeling all the muscles in his back and shoulders relax into the cushions. He was tired and full and happy. He'd cooked up a decent meal out of the nuts and tubers he and Pidge had found and served up a meal worthy of a date. He'd gotten some quality quiet time in the kitchen when everyone else had gone their separate ways to eat, and now he was ready for some quality napping.

A noise at the door had him lifting his head. It was Keith standing half in and out of the room "Oh, sorry," he said, taking a step back.

"Hey, man," Hunk waved. "You can come in, I'm just taking a breather." He gestured at all the open space around him. 

Keith hesitated, and Hunk was sure that he was about to bolt. He wasn't one for hanging out without anyone else around. But Keith surprised him and stayed. He came around the bowl to the stairs and sat on the bench by Hunk's feet, sitting upright and looking uncomfortable. Hunk blinked at him. Of all the empty seating space he was actually sitting close. Keith was a bit of a weird dude. But a weird dude he kind of liked, despite his prickliness. They hadn't talked a lot one-on-one, but with their new dating initiative, Hunk found himself wanting to try.

He sat up, hiking his knee up on the bench so he could turn toward Keith. "So, uh, your outing with Lance go okay?"

It wasn't perhaps the best conversational opener, but it was what Hunk could think of and it got Keith's attention. His gaze snapped to Hunk and his dark eyes searched his face intently. It was more than Hunk was expecting and he hastily looked away, feeling his cheeks heat.

"I mean it's none of my business. I was just making conversation. You were gone awhile, and we were gone awhile. You didn't find fruit. We found fruit. Not that I'm judging you for not finding fruit," Hunk added.

"I thought the fruit was poisonous," Keith said.

"It is. Pidge and Coran are running experiments on it now. But the potato-y things were good, right?" 

"They were," Keith smiled a little bit, relaxing. "And it's fine asking. Our trip was good I think." Keith's gaze turned inward, a frown forming between his brows. "We figured some things out."

"Good, good. That's good." Hunk rubbed his palm on his apron-covered thigh, trying to think of anything else to say.

"It is your business," Keith said after a moment. 

"What?"

"Me and Lance. How we get along. It affects the team, so it is your business," Keith said slowly, like he was thinking it through out loud. "How you and me get along, and me and Pidge, and you and Lance, and you and Pidge. We're like a web."

"And Shiro," Hunk said. He hadn't thought about it like that, like there were strings between all of them that crossed and intersected. If one was pulled one way, it would drag the others along with it.

"Shiro, and Allura and Coran too," Keith agreed. "At the Garrison I was friends with my flight team. I know it's important. I'm just not very good at it."

He wasn't looking at Hunk as he said it, staring at the floor with his hands jammed into the pockets of his red jacket. The epitome of the loner image, Hunk thought, but here he was, talking to him anyway.

"I think you're doing fine," Hunk said. "We've all been kind of thrown into outer space and an alien war, so, you know, it's gonna take some time."

That had Keith raising an eyebrow at him, a disbelieving smile hovering about his mouth like he couldn't decide whether Hunk was being funny on purpose or not. It was on purpose. Hunk was hilarious.

Since Keith hadn't left yet, Hunk decided to give in to his curiosity. "So did you kiss Lance?"

That got him the second eyebrow and a half an eye-roll. "No. We talked about it, but it definitely didn't happen out there."

"Do you want to?" When Keith looked away, clearly uncomfortable, Hunk added. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but it's a time honored tradition between friends to dish on who you want to make out with. You think I don't know everything about every girl who even so much as looked at Lance twice? Besides, you said it was my business."

"I'm beginning to regret that," Keith sighed, tossing his head back in a put-upon gesture that also shook his hair out of his eyes. He slid down in his seat a little more and threw a look Hunk's way. "I want to want to. I want Voltron to work. I want us to be a team and not have to worry about him being on my case." He paused, looking back at the bench across from them. "I don't want him to be weird about me."

"I think that ship has sailed."

"No, I don't mean that. I told you we talked about that. We're going to try and, I don't know, be nicer to each other. I meant -" Keith sighed again, drawing in on himself and darting a look at Hunk that was definitely on the nervous side. Hunk kept quiet, wondering what it was that had him on edge. Keith shot him another look, and let it never be said that he avoided difficult things once he'd made up his mind. "So I'm trans and I don't think Lance knows and I don't know how he'll react, especially if this bonding things gets beyond kissing. I kind of don't want to deal with it."

"Oh." Hunk hadn't known that either and he was honestly rather touched that Keith was trusting him with this. He poked at the idea for a second, trying to see the shape of it in his jaw, before mentally shrugging and moving on. Keith was still Keith where prickly was a better descriptor than anything. "Lance's not an asshole. Okay, but not that kind of asshole," Hunk amended when Keith gave him a look that described the entirety of his contentious relationship with Lance. "It might take him a minute to adjust but he'll still be more annoyed that you're a better pilot."

"Is it gonna be like how he was weird about Pidge?"

"He was more mad that the rest of us knew she was a girl and he hadn't noticed. I can tell him if you want. He can be weird with me about it while he adjusts to the idea."

"You'd do that?" Keith sat up a little straighter.

"Sure," Hunk said. "We're friends, right? Or getting there?"

Keith's surprise at that statement melted into a shy smile. "Yeah. Thanks, Hunk."

"Guys!" Pidge slammed into the doorjamb of the lounge with a shout that had both Hunk and Keith jumping in their seats. "Guys! You gotta see this!" She bounced off the doorway and jumped down into the bowl. Both of her hands were full, one with the weird fruit they'd found and the other with a plate of something.

Hunk jerked upright before her feet hit the floor. "Hey! What are you doing? I thought you said that stuff was dangerous!" 

"Only if we eat it." Pidge slid to the floor, setting down her plate. Abruptly her jubilant expressing transformed into a frown. "I forgot a knife. Hunk -"

"Nuhuh," he shook his head. "My knives are for food safe food stuffs."

"But you gotta see this!" Pidge was practically vibrating she was so excited, and Hunk was struck by how amazing it was to see her so happy with whatever discovery she'd made.

"Here." Keith drew the purple and silver knife that he always wore at the small of his back and held it out to her hilt first. Pidge paused before taking it, the question if he was sure in the flick of her eyes between Keith and his knife. Keith gestured for her to take it, and Pidge didn't need to be told twice.

"Thanks!"

From the glance Hunk shared with Keith a moment later, Keith was getting a kick out of seeing her excitement too.

"Hey, where's Lance? He's gotta see this too." 

"Probably in his room," Hunk said.

Pidge leapt up to hit the comm by the door and five minutes later Lance arrived, pausing a moment in the doorway when he saw all of them, his gaze lingering on Keith. Pidge didn't give him time to be nervous, telling him to hurry up. She scooped up the yellow and blue striped fruit and sliced it into halves. The plate held pellets of some kind, and when Pidge leaned back and squeezed the fruit like a lemon over the plate, they erupted in a shower of fizzing rainbow sparks in a tiny fountain of color.

"It's like a volcano experiment!" Hunk laughed, delighted.

"Whoa - where are the colors coming from?" Lance asked. Even Keith was grinning at the show.

"Cool, huh?" said Pidge, grinning. "Coran wasn't very helpful about what the pellets are but they're probably some sort of alkali base to react with the fruit juice. It's pretty acidic and has some corrosive properties."

"It won't hurt my knife, will it?" Keith asked, reaching for it.

"Nah. Just be careful when you clean it."

"Here." Hunk scooted closer to Keith. He tugged at a corner of his apron and leaned in so Keith could reach easily.

"Thanks."

Experimentally, Hunk settled back where he was, only a few inches between the two of them. Keith turned his head a little at his movement, but he didn't move away like Hunk was expecting him to. On the floor, Pidge was giving Lance a crash course in acid-base chemistry and neither one of them were paying attention to them.

"So who do you want to go on a date with next?" Keith broke the comfortable silence between them.

Hunk raised his eyebrows. It wasn't a question he'd have expected Keith to ask at all. "Well -"

"And it can't be Lance or Pidge. We all need to get comfortable with everyone." Keith's bangs had fallen into his face again and he wasn't looking at Hunk, instead watching Pidge and Lance.

No need to guess who he was talking about. Hunk wondered how many more dates he and Lance would need before they were comfortable with each other.

Hunk thought about the easy afternoon he'd had with Pidge, joking and flirting a little while they were out in the forest. He could see himself doing that with Lance, and maybe Keith now, too, though what they had was literally ten minutes old, so new that Hunk almost didn't know what to do with it. But Shiro? Allura? He could barely imagine hanging out with them one-on-one as friends much less kissing them. The scope of what they were trying to accomplish to strengthen their Voltron bonds suddenly seemed a lot bigger. 

"Maybe we should just go for it," he said.

"Go for it?" Keith shook his bangs out of his face.

"What are we going for?" Lance chimed in. He and Pidge had flopped back on the couch, done with their conversation.

"All of us dating each other," Hunk said. "It's all about trust, right? And being able to focus on everyone else while we're forming Voltron. Intimacy. No offense, Keith, but it's going to take forever if we keep going off in pairs and trios. We're gonna accidentally leave people out, like we did -" Hunk motioned toward Lance and Pidge "- when we ended up kissing each other."

"You're suggesting an orgy," Pidge said flatly.

"What?!" Lance half-laughed.

"Uh." Keith didn't even make it that far.

"I guess?" Hunk said. "Something that involves all of us. At the same time. Being close. Trusting each other to take care of each other."

"Does it have to involve sex?" Keith asked.

Lance covered his eyes again. "I'm picturing everyone naked again."

"Maybe we just start with kissing," Hunk said, as reassuringly as he could.

"Sex is a lot to trust people with," Pidge said, her voice quiet. She was picking at the hem of her shorts, avoiding eye-contact. Her words settled over them like a misting rain, touching down softly and sinking in slowly. 

"If we go slow, I'm in," Hunk said.

"Just kissing," Pidge said.

They all glanced from one to the other. Lance gave Hunk a nod and half smile that that didn't reach his eyes, his nerves showing when he looked at Keith. But Keith was nodding too. The only sign he wasn't as calm as his face suggested was the way his fingers twisted on the grip of his knife. 

"I'm in."


	3. Chapter 3

Pidge waited for Hunk in the corridor outside the kitchen the next day. She wasn't sure whether she was looking forward to training or not. Probably a little of both, if she were honest.

Shiro and Allura had come back inside from their date smiling at each other and listened when they'd told them they wanted to try a group make-out session. Shiro had looked each of them in the eye and made sure they all were serious and not being pressured into it before he said okay. He and Allura had exchanged a glanced and then to everyone's surprise, he told them that he and Allura had kissed on their date.

"If we're going to do this, we all need to be honest with each other," he'd said, and Pidge had exchanged a glance with Hunk and Lance, remembering their own secret kiss and the conversation that had cradled it. It was more than just a kiss. She'd confessed her fears, and Hunk and Lance had shared theirs, and they had understood each other, and afterward that feeling of being connected to them had returned when they'd been flying their Lions. She hadn't recognized it at the time, not until the debriefing, but if they could all do that together in Voltron? It was worth pushing her comfort zone for that.

The one thing she was worried about was that kissing everyone else while sitting in a circle would be mechanical and weird, a chore they had to do to make Voltron work. What if it didn't make a difference for the bonds they had with their Lions and each other? Would that same understanding be there for her and the others? Shiro, she could see, maybe. She felt comfortable enough with him after what he'd said when they were searching for Green. But Keith, and especially Allura, she wasn't so sure about.

"Okay, I'm ready." Hunk emerged from the kitchen carrying a bucket of green snacks.

"I don't think we're going to be working up an appetite," Pidge said as they fell into step down the corridor.

"Shiro said I should bring the goo-sticks I made for their date last night." Hunk grinned at her. "I guess he liked them."

Pidge wondered how he told the difference between that and everything else that was goo-flavored. "If you say so," she said. "Hey. You'll still kiss me, right?" she asked, pretty sure, but maybe she was more nervous than she'd thought.

"Yeah, of course." Hunk glanced at her. "It's going to be fine." He sounded so sure of himself. Pidge cast a sideways look at him, trying to see if he was faking it. She was pretty sure he was faking it. Whether he was or not, Hunk was playing it cool.

"Do you think it'll work?" she asked.

"I think we won't know till we try. And, I mean, we all like each other, don't we?"

"Yeah. You're right." Pidge took a breath as they turned down the hallway that led to the training room. Shiro was arriving from the other direction with Keith, who actually smiled a little when he saw them, which had to be nerves, but it made Pidge feel a little better. Lance was inside already, and nearly as soon as the door closed behind them they opened again for Allura.

It was awkward. No one knew what to say so instead they all looked at each other for a minute before Shiro clapped his hands and said, "Okay. Anyone who wants to back out -"

"We told you, we're in," Keith interrupted him, and Pidge found herself squaring her shoulders and nodding along with the boys and Allura.

"Okay," Shiro said slowly. "Well, let's sit then. Hunk do you have -"

"Yep. Snacks. They're a great way to break the ice," Hunk interrupted and that was definitely nerves. All his earlier calm had evaporated.

"Actually, I had something else in mind," Shiro said, waving for Hunk to bring the goo-sticks over. He waited till they were all seated in a circle with plenty of space between them, then pulled out one of the green sticks and held it up. He wasn't looking at anyone in particular. "Anyone ever play Pocky?"

Beside Pidge, Hunk's eyes went wide. Lance and Keith, on either side of Shiro both perked up, clearly recognizing the game. 

"I haven't," Allura said, on Pidge's other side, and Pidge was glad she wasn't the only one and glad she didn't have to admit it.

"Pocky is a thin breadstick covered in chocolate - a sweet," Shiro explained. "The game is one we played at parties in middle school. You and a partner take an end each in your mouth, and eat toward the middle. The goal is to keep hold of the last bit." He glanced around the circle, a small smile playing around his mouth, and Pidge saw where this was going. "Of course the real goal is to kiss your partner." He held up the goo-stick toward Keith. "You want to help me demonstrate?"

Keith froze for a second, like he was spooked. His eyes locked on Shiro's and Shiro kept the calm, reassuring expression on his face that made you believe everything was going to be okay. Keith's freeze didn't last long and he nodded, scooting closer to Shiro until they were facing each other. His eyes never left Shiro's face as they each took an end of the goo-stick between their teeth. 

Shiro crunched down first, loud in the otherwise perfect silence. Keith went next, and then inch by inch, their faces drew closer together. Pidge found herself holding her breath when their noses bumped. Shiro and Keith both paused, and the tension between them was as alive as any of them, their lips barely a whisper apart. Pidge knew they'd known each other on Earth and were friends, but this would be crossing a line into new territory.

Keith was the one who made the final move. He tilted his head and pressed his lips to Shiro's. Shiro's eyes fluttered closed, and to Pidge's shock he leaned into the kiss and opened his mouth to Keith without hesitation. Right there in front of all of them. His flesh hand came up to cup Keith's cheek, and Keith moaned pushing closer.

Pidge felt her cheeks warm. She should look away - they all should - but she couldn't, and more than that she was definitely enjoying the show. Shiro and Keith were kissing like they weren't going to stop. It wasn't a peck on the lips or just friends or let's demonstrate how to play Pocky. It was let's demonstrate how to fuck someone with your mouth.

Beside her Hunk's jaw fell open, and on Shiro's other side Lance watched like he wasn't sure he should be either. He noticed Pidge and widened his eyes even more in her direction, expressing can-you-believe-this? Pidge shook her head, but Lance's expression made her smile because it was kind of ridiculous. This whole thing was ridiculous. A quick glance at Allura on her other side showed the princess watching with as much interest as the rest of them.

When at last Shiro broke the kiss, both he and Keith were breathing hard, looking at each other like they were off in their own little world. Lance wolf-whistled bringing them back to the group. Keith ducked his head, letting his bangs fall into his eyes, but he was smiling. Shiro was too. He passed the pail of goo-sticks to Keith, who passed them on to Hunk.

"So that's how you play," Shiro said, which was probably the understatement of the day and undercut by him looking at Keith with a smile that wouldn't go away.

"That's how _you_ play," Hunk said with feeling, selecting a goo-stick. He didn't look directly at Pidge even as he turned toward her, and Pidge felt her butterflies return in full force.

"Come on, Hunk, you and Pidge show them how it's really done!" Lance called from across the circle. 

Like magic words, Pidge felt something shift in the air. Glancing at Lance she saw him grinning at her, leaning back on his hands like he was watching a soccer match fully expecting her to win. Like he had her back. Her nerves settled and suddenly kissing in front of everyone didn't seem so daunting. Across the circle, Shiro's eyes were dancing, an easy smile on his face as he nodded back at Pidge. Even Keith was grinning a little. He was sitting close to Shiro, keeping the space he'd moved into during their kiss, his arms wrapped loosely around his knees. Seeing him kiss Shiro like that, the easy way he sat now with swollen lips, Pidge hadn't ever thought of Keith that way, even when all this started. But now she was struck by the desire to kiss him, too. Kiss all of them. Struck again by the knowledge that if everything went to plan, she _would_.

That would have to wait though. Hunk shifted, holding out the goo-stick with his eyebrows raised, and Pidge turned her attention to him.

"What do you say, Hunk? You ready to go for it?" she asked with new confidence, rising up on her knees to meet his height.

"Oh hell, yeah," Hunk laughed, sticking the goo-stick in his mouth. Pidge bobbed to take the other end between her lips and with barely a sign of warning it was on. She crunched down, keeping her lips firm on the goo-stick. It still tasted just like food goo, unsurprisingly, but there was anticipation there too. Hunk's face was so close to hers it was hard to focus on, and it kept getting closer until before she knew it, their mouths were meeting, slick with spit and with a dusting of crumbs. 

It was nothing like their last kiss a couple days ago. Where before their kiss had been tentative, testing the waters, going slow and careful to ease into something fragile and new, this kiss was hot and fast from the beginning. Hunk's tongue swept into her mouth like it belonged there, sending a spike of hot want to throb between Pidge's legs. Her hands caught at his shoulders to keep her balance as she met him, tasted him, opened wide to take everything he was offering. Hunk's hands landed at her hips, their warmth burning through the fabric of her shirt and shorts. Pidge gasped when two fingers slid under the hem to brush her bare skin. Hunk's mouth was hot, his lips plump when they pulled together in a rhythm that let them breathe before diving in again. Pidge felt her whole body flush when he sucked on her tongue. Felt Hunk shiver when she swiped the roof of his mouth. 

A cat call brought them back to themselves, and with one last press of lips, Pidge sat back. She was breathing hard, and she couldn't help but grin at the slightly stunned look on Hunk's face that melted into a return grin a moment later. He still had his hands around her waist and she still held onto his shoulders. A hundred feelings were running through her veins - foremost among them a shyness she refused to give into. She grinned wider instead, letting go.

"That was fantastic!" she said, and saying it made everything better. 

Hunk brightened, and Pidge could practically feel how happy he was, which made her happy and want to do it all over again, right now. "You're fantastic!" he said, making Pidge warm all over again. 

She settled back onto her heels, sliding from there to cross-legged. Lance gave them a thumbs up, and Shiro was smiling. His posture seemed to have relaxed too, and for the first time Pidge realized that he had been more worried about this than he'd let on. She smiled at him as reassuringly as she could, glancing at Hunk who was also looking for the others' reactions. Keith had his eyebrows raised and a thoughtful expression on his face, but he looked away quickly. Allura, however, caught Pidge's attention.

The princess was more than a little wide-eyed. Her dark skin made it hard to tell, but Pidge thought she might be blushing, and she was certainly flustered when she caught Pidge looking at her.

"That was . . . not what I expected," she said, her eyes straying to Lance, who at least had the grace to tone it down when he turned to Allura.

"They've already had a little practice," he said.

"Allura, if you just want to watch for now, that's okay," Shiro started.

"No, no, I said I would participate, and I meant it," she said, straightening where she sat. Somehow she could make sitting crosslegged on the floor regal.

Hunk passed the goo-sticks to her. "You don't have to . . . you know." He waved a hand between him and Pidge to indicate their passionate kiss. Allura straightened up even taller and arched an eyebrow that suggested she was taking it as a challenge rather than a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Pidge got it. Despite Shiro saying it was okay to back out, there was still a lot of pressure since the rest of them were participating. To make it more intimidating, the girls were outnumbered two to one, although, Pidge mused, between Shiro and Keith, that might not be an entirely accurate way to think about it. 

Shiro opened his mouth to say something more, but Allura glared at him till he sat back, raising his hands in submission. 

"I said I would be in this with you, and I want to," she said again.

And Pidge got that too. "Hey," she said, reaching out to brush Allura's hand with hers. Allura turned, all determination, and Pidge gave her a reassuring smile. "Lance is a good kisser."

Allura nodded, a playful smile peeking out as she surveyed the boys. "But is he the best kisser?" she asked, getting a surprised laugh from them. Pidge smirked. With a sense of humor, Allura would be fine. And in a fierce surge of protectiveness, Pidge would prank anyone who didn't treat her right. But the guys were all good guys. None of them protested or made a joke or did anything to make Allura feel like she should do one thing or another. Even Lance who could sometimes be a bit much and had the biggest crush on her. His expression was hopeful and a little shy when Allura turned to him. 

"All right," she said, raising a goo-stick between them. "Let's go."

* * *

The Pocky game was utterly ridiculous. Even worse, on her first attempt at biting on the end of the goo-stick, Allura couldn't hold onto the new end and dropped it so that it was dangling from Lance's mouth. She scowled, embarrassed, except Lance looked ridiculous as he tried to get his end back up and in position for her to take it again. She heard one of their others snicker, and even she had to laugh when Lance said, "Look! No hands!" waving both of his out to the side while the goo-stick fluttered as he spoke.

Allura gamely tried again. She wasn't going to be the weak link among the paladins, even if she strictly didn't need to be involved with them for them to strengthen their bonds with each other and Voltron. Secretly, she was touched to be included, and she wanted the humans to like her as much as she was coming to like them.

Of course it didn't help when she dropped the goo-stick again, or when the others started giving her helpful advice about how to pucker her lips and use her tongue. Despite her bravado, she was more nervous about messing up the kiss than she wanted to be, and doubly so, now that she'd seen what the others had been using their tongues for! But in the end, she got the hang of it, and Lance's features inched ever closer with every bite until they were nose to nose. 

Allura took the decisive final inch, pressing forward and swallowing the last of the goo-stick until her lips were pressed against Lance's.

Kissing Lance was nothing like kissing Shiro. That had been a dry peck of closed mouths. This was wet and full of flavor. Her mouth slightly parted, she gasped when she felt Lance's breath catch against hers, his tongue swiping her lower lip to send sensations tingling through her head to the rest of her in a shiver of excitement.

It didn't last long and Allura didn't know whether to be disappointed or not. Lance pulled away with hooded eyes and a half smile. "Was that okay?" he asked quietly, in a tone completely opposite of what she'd come to expect from him. Allura had the urge to kiss him again, to lick his lip and see if it would make him gasp. She nodded instead, taken back by her own feelings and cognizant of the others watching. She hadn't known it could be like that. Shiro was studying her, worrying of course, and when he smiled encouragingly, Allura felt like she'd passed some test she hadn't been fully aware of. She knew how important it was for Shiro that they all be willing participants, and while she had been, she hadn't greeted today with enthusiasm either. Now she was beginning to see what was so thrilling about kissing.

"That was . . ." Allura searched for words, trying to capture the feeling, like piloting her first ship, seeing a sunrise, sharing joy. Whatever expression was on her face must have conveyed some of that because, a slow smile spread across Lance's face, pleased and sincere. The loud comment she was expecting, especially after Hunk and Pidge's declarations didn't come, and Allura found herself wondering what else was going on behind that smile that made him duck his head a little as they shifted back to where they'd been sitting.

Or not exactly where they had been sitting. A little closer together, the circle of paladins a little bit smaller, and Allura tucked in with them. She found that she liked that very much.

* * *

Lance was swooning. Allura was beautiful, and she'd kissed him and enjoyed it, and he was swooning. High on Cloud Nine, ready to tango, and shit he was thinking of sliding her dress off, and that was not in the cards right now. Kissing, and kissing only, he told his twitching cock. That's what this was about. Horny or not, that wasn't what he wanted anyway. Well, he wanted, but because she was amazing and not just because she was beautiful.

"So we're going again?" Hunk asked. Hunk! Who would have thought he was so horny too! Suggesting a kissing-orgy. Not that it wasn't a brilliant idea, because Lance had just gotten to kiss Allura and wow, that had been amazing.

"Lance, you with us?" Shiro's voice cut through his musings, and Lance jerked upright out of his swooning, feeling high and happy.

"Present and accounted for!" He glanced at Allura and hoped he wasn't being too weird. She was watching him with an expression he couldn't decipher, so he smiled and tried to pay attention. Shiro had pulled out another goo-stick and was holding it out toward him, and wow, Lance was not prepared for that. He looked from the goo-stick to Shiro's calm expression. His chiseled jaw, the shock of white hair that flopped over his right eye.

"Counterclockwise, if you're game."

"Oh, uh," Lance finished with a wordless nod, his happy swooning feeling turning into something that was definitely not panic. His crush on Allura was huge, and while she was totally out of his league, they'd had a few conversations when they weren't failing at Voltron that gave him hope that one day, maybe, they'd have a date and hang out and one thing would lead to another. Shiro on the other hand, hadn't been on the radar. Shiro was his hero! Lance lived for the moments when he did something right and Shiro clapped him on the back with a "Good job." He was their cool leader, and the thought of kissing him was up there with baring all his flaws and putting them in front of Shiro on display. It was the last thing he wanted.

He also wanted it so bad, his cock woke up even more in his pants.

He took the other end of the goo-stick in his mouth, clenching his hands in the fabric of his jeans to keep them from shaking. The Pocky crunching took no time at all, but before their lips met, Shiro's chin with the faintest rasp of stubble brushed against Lance's sending a cascade of sensations through him made Lance groan and shudder. He felt his cock get harder, incredibly turned on, but there was no time to think because Shiro's lips were on his and his tongue was pressing against Lance's in a hot open-mouthed kiss that made his hands clench and his whole body coil tight. Lance pressed up against him and the prickle of Shiro's chin made his skin burn hot, wanting more and wanting to pull away at the same time.

Then it was over. Shiro pulled back. Lance gasped for breath. He stared into Shiro's eyes, which crinkled a little as he smiled, and oh, he was handsome.

"I think I've just had a second sexual awakening," Lance said.

"Like kissing boys, huh?" Shiro sat back on his feet, one knee coming up for him to lean his arm against. He looked smug as he said it, and beside him Keith did too.

"You look wrecked," Keith said with a little smile, and if Lance didn't feel every nerve in his body screaming for more he would have taken offense. But he was supposed to be giving Keith a chance, and -

"My dick is so hard right now," Lance said, his brain-mouth filter gone. "I mean -" he slapped a hand over his eyes, mortified.

Hunk laughed. "Thanks for sharing, man."

Lance squinted through his fingers at Shiro and Keith who were both grinning, though Keith wasn't looking at him. Shiro, on the other hand, was sitting close enough to pat Lance's knee, which he did, saying, "No shame in feeling good," with an easy smile that chased away the last of Lance's embarrassment.

"Hard?" Allura asked.

"Aroused," said Pidge. "Damn, that was hot." Here eyes were bright, darting between Lance and Shiro. "That's okay to say, right? Everyone's cool with all the watching?"

And oh, there was another flood of desire at knowing that the rest of them had seen that. Lance couldn't speak. He shook his head and flopped onto his back trying to calm down a little, hoping that not having to look at anyone would help. It did a little. Until Pidge spoke again.

"All right, Allura," she said. "Our turn. You ready for the big time?"

Lance scrambled to sit up. "Don't push her, Pidge," he said, feeling protective.

"Your kiss was the perfect start," Allura said to him before turning to Pidge with another goo-stick, "But I'm ready for more now."

* * *

Watching Shiro and Lance, the two boys Allura had kissed, kiss each other, had been unexpectedly thrilling. She'd flushed unexpectedly warm at the sight, the pool of desire that had been stirring in her belly suddenly blooming into something much bigger.

Kissing Pidge put that feeling to shame.

As soon as her lips pressed against Allura's her tongue had followed, and Allura was quick to open her mouth as sensation after sensation alighted through her. This kiss was full of movement, full of desire, and sparked Allura's own, sending blood to pulse between her legs. Pidge's fingers were not idle either, grasping at her hips, her fingers clenching and sending more pleasurable sensations swimming through Allura. She wanted those fingers everywhere. She wanted Pidge's mouth everywhere. This was the kiss that Shiro had shared with Keith and Lance, that Pidge had expressed with Hunk, and now Allura knew what had left them gasping for breath, wanting more.

She clutched back at Pidge, her hands landing to gather the baggy fabric of her shirt around a surprisingly tiny waist. Her touch set off a moan from Pidge that had her pressing closer to Allura, her chest crushing against Allura's breasts when Allura pressed back to keep her balance. The touch set off another flurry of sensation that took Allura back to her youthful night dreams as she'd reached maturity, when all that she craved was pleasure sliding across her skin. That's what Pidge was giving her, a wild ride of pleasure, confident that Allura could withstand the storm.

When they broke apart at last, Allura had to stop herself from reaching for Pidge again. Her glasses were askew and her lips were shiny and swollen from kissing. Allura wanted to kiss her again. When a slow smile broke out across her face, she couldn't help it, Allura darted in and landed one last searing kiss to Pidge's lips

One of the boys whistled, and when they separated at last, Lance said, "I think I might spontaneously combust."

"Good?" Allura asked Pidge, though she was already fairly certain of the answer.

Pidge grinned, her fingers flexing where they still held her hips. "Allura, that was amazing."

"Oh my god that was amazing to _watch_. Is it hot in here? Can I take my vest off?" Hunk didn't wait for an answer, pulling off the garment and tossing it aside. Sweat stained his headband and he rubbed his palms against his thighs. "Okay, this has definitely escalated. Are we escalating?"

"Yeah, I think we're escalating," Keith said. Allura remembered the goo-sticks and searched around to pass them on, but Keith shook his head at her, his eyes turning to Hunk. They were next in the circle. "I think we can skip the Pocky."

"Yeah, okay -" Hunk was kneeling and he didn't get a chance to say anything more before Keith took his head in both hands and kissed him. Hunk's hands flapped in the air for a minute, both of them kissing as passionately as everyone else had, before he started pushing at Keith's jacket, sliding it down his arms.

Pidge hadn't moved back to her seat, still kneeling next to Allura, whom she turned to for a brief shared look that this was actually happening. Allura was still behind on what sex entailed for humans, but from how Hunk's hands slid under Keith's shirt, the groan and wiggle Keith gave when he traced over sensitive skin, it was progressing along the same path as Altean sex. As their excitement built, so did Allura's, accompanied by a blush that she was witness to Keith's hands sliding under Hunk's shirt in return, lifting a little to show a stripe of enticing brown skin.

"Take it off!" Pidge shouted suddenly. "Let's see that beautiful body! Woo!"

Taken by surprise, Allura stared at her, but Pidge just winked. Hunk and Keith had broken their kiss, laughing, perhaps a little shy. Lance was next to chime in with, "Don't stop! You guys are killing me!" He was sitting with his legs loosely crossed and one hand pressed directly between them. He was flushed and sweating too, his hips hitching ever so slightly in a rhythm that was mesmerizing. Aroused. Once she thought it, Allura felt her own desire sharpen, her nose catching a scent in the air that had her pressing her thighs closely together to generate a delicious friction. On Lance's other side, Shiro sat similarly crosslegged at the ankle, but his knees were up and his arms wrapped tightly around them. If it weren't for the way his lips were slightly parted and his gaze was focused on the scene before him without protest, Allura might have thought him merely curious. 

Meanwhile, Keith tossed back his hair from his face and asked Hunk, "Yeah?" his meaning clear only when Hunk nodded and Keith drew Hunk's shirt over his head. Keith's eyes drifted down, and Allura's followed, taking in the strength of Hunk's shoulders and the softness of his belly. The two of them only had eyes for each other, and after a moment of hesitation Keith nodded and Hunk drew off his shirt in return. Keith was smaller, but no less strong, with a pair of pale scars on his chest. He shuddered when Hunk passed a hand over them, passing smoothly up to Keith's neck where he pulled Keith in for another kiss. Keith hands came up to hold Hunk in return, gentle with each other, even as Pidge cheered again, and Lance made noises. Allura let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

* * *

Keith and Hunk were beautiful. Watching them together, Shiro was so proud of both of them - Keith for opening up under Hunk's kiss and Hunk for putting his heart out there for them all to see. Shiro would be lying if he said he wasn't more than a little turned on, too, seasoned as it was with a little shame that he was ogling his friends like this. He was supposed to be their leader and here he was giving Lance the kiss of his life and putting everything he felt about Keith into the meeting of their mouths. Now, seeing Keith without his shirt and Hunk bared beside him, he wanted nothing more than to touch them both and damn all the ingrained rules that he'd grown up with about what was right and proper.

Of course saying that was one thing. Doing it another. The others were more than making up for it, however. Hunk and Keith were still grinning at each other, though somewhat shyly now that the heat of the moment had faded.

"You're beautiful, man," Hunk told him, trailing a hand down Keith's arm.

"You are too," Keith said, his voice scratchy from kissing. 

"Dibs on Hunk's next kiss!" Lance said. 

"Oh we're calling dibs now?" Hunk said sitting back on his hands. "I need a breather. Also, your shirt's still on."

Lance scrambled to pull it off, and Shiro had to dodge a wayward elbow. He ended up helping when Lance got himself twisted up with his jacket. When he was free, Shiro's eyes drifted down over his bronze skin and lean muscles. Lance flexed his arms and abs, making a silly face.

"Oh yeah. I see you checking out the goods, Shiro. You like what you see, huh?" He preened and posed and nodded across at Keith and Hunk. "Who's got the best cut?"

"Oh no, I'm not picking favorites," Shiro held up his hands to leave him out of his. Despite his best intentions, though, he couldn't help but look. Hunk sat up enough to flex and make a grr face at Lance, falling back laughing almost as soon as he did. His abs didn't stand out, but the raw power of his build rippled under his skin. Keith rolled his eyes at them, but when he caught Shiro looking at him their eyes caught, and one of Keith's arms crossed to rub at his other shoulder self-consciously.

Shiro lightly touched his elbow and consciously let go of his reservations and let himself admire Keith. His eyes traveled down from his muscled chest, partially covered by his arm, to his narrow waist. On their way back up, he licked his lips and let his finger trail down to Keith's hand. Keith inhaled sharply when Shiro's gaze lingered on his lips before meeting his eyes again. Keith was gorgeous. Shiro's heart beat faster just thinking about their kiss. About kissing him again. About how much love he had for Keith and how much love he felt returned.

"You are totally picking favorites, Shiro," Pidge's voice cut through the haze of his want and brought Shiro back to the group. Her tone was playful, her eyes were bright, and she had a smirk dancing around her mouth. "

"Wounded!" Lance flailed back theatrically. "I may never recover! Save me Hunk!" 

"Oh Lance," Hunk clasped his hands to his chest and fluttered his eyelashes. "I will always love the cut of your abs best!"

"Kiss me you fool!" 

Hunk crawled over to Lance, right on top of him, pinning Lance to the floor with a kiss that would have been as dirty as the one he'd given Keith if Lance could stop laughing long enough to kiss back. Their laughter was infectious. Shiro felt it bubble up inside, joy suffusing him, echoed back in Keith bumping his shoulder, and Pidge and Allura leaning against each other in a fit of giggles.

Last night, when the younger paladins had told him that they were all in on forging deeper bonds with serious determined expressions, this had been the last thing he'd expected. He'd expected a lot more stepping in to make sure everyone was comfortable, looking for clues that someone wanted out but was too afraid to say. He'd forgotten what it was like to be eighteen and horny with enough friendship holding them together to make fools of themselves. To kiss and feel and want more.

He'd been so careful about what he'd wanted. Worried against half-remembered dreams for clues about where that came from. Worried against memories of his life before Kerberos, the heartbreak of walking away from Adam, the pain that love could cut fresh every time.

Lance had calmed enough to catch up with Hunk, hands roving up and down Hunk's back while Hunk ground their hips together. Over his shoulder he heard the light puff of Keith's breath in his ear, and stretched out his senses to hear more, not wanting to tear his eyes away from the guys in front of him. His cock was hard, and he let himself feel that too. Somewhere in the back of his mind a gentle purr shuddered up his spine, a touch both familiar and foreign that Shiro let pass through him without thinking about it too hard. Two layers of cloth were all that were separating Lance and Hunk from fucking right in front of them. 

How fucked up was it that he wanted to watch that? His dick was straining against his own pants, full and heavy. He resisted the urge to touch himself. He found Keith's hand beside him, as sweaty as his own, his grip just as strong. It took doing but he dragged his eyes from the show toward Keith again, watching him flushed and dazed as he looked back at Shiro. Wondered what his hands would be like on Shiro's skin. What his body would feel like on top of Shiro's. He felt eyes watching them. Pidge's, flicking between Lance and Hunk who were groaning into each other now and Shiro and Keith who were this close to kissing again. 

Her gaze held no judgement, just lust. Beside her Allura was riveted by Lance and Hunk, one hand mysteriously hidden from view as she rocked where she sat. Watching her, watching Pidge watch them, Shiro was reminded that this was still technically round three of the Pocky game, even though the goo-sticks were scattered on the mat behind Pidge. It wasn't just two of them involved. It was all of them. They probably shouldn't get too carried away yet.

"Think we should throw cold water on them?" he asked. 

That got their attention. "Don't you dare!" Hunk rolled off of Lance who had no shame and groaned, clutching his cock through his pants.

"This is escalating again," he said through heaving breaths.

"Gotta wait for the rest of us," Shiro told him, feeling the purr in the back of his head wash through him warmly. His senses were amped up to another level, like he could feel all of them where they were, their breath and heat, their very quintessence pumping through him as strongly as his own. Keith squeezed Shiro's hand, prompting Shiro to duck in for a kiss that landed on the corner of Keith's mouth.

"Favorite!" Pidge sing-songed.

"You want to be my next favorite?" Shiro asked her, releasing Keith's hand. Lance and Hunk were still sprawled out on the floor, but both of their heads popped up. Pidge grinned and jumped up and over both of them, landing in front of Shiro on her knees. She plucked at his shirt.

"You gotta get rid of this," she ordered him.

"Really," he arched a brow at her, then was bowled back when she pounced, pulling up his shirt until Shiro yielded and stripped it off in two quick motions. He barely had a chance to let out the laugh that bubbled out when she was climbing into his lap and taking his cheeks in her hands. 

Shiro brought his metal hand around her to help her keep her balance, and then her mouth was pressed against his. The cotton of her shirt rubbed against his bare chest in counterpoint to the softness of her mouth. She was so tiny, but her weight on his cock held him in place and left him gasping against her. The fingers of his flesh hand found the hem of her shirt and slid underneath to find the smooth expanse of her skin up her side. 

Pidge squirmed in his lap, sending waves of pleasure from Shiro's dick that had him sucking in a breath lest he lose control. He slowed their kiss and had to break away for a moment and rest his head on Pidge's shoulder to catch his breath. His scalp shivered when she ran her hands through his hair, and Shiro breathed through it as they trailed down his back. She avoided the join of his metal arm to his shoulder, for which he was grateful.

Shiro brought his knees up behind her and let her ease back. She had concern in her eyes when he finally lifted his head, and he smiled reassuringly. 

"I'm okay," he said. 

"The girl thing is not weirding you out?"

He smiled, noting all the ways his body was very much into her at the moment. "The girl thing is not weirding me out."

"So I guess that means you liked it."

Shiro laughed a little at the mischief that replaced Pidge's concern. "You could say that."

"I do. Because I'm your second favorite," Pidge said imperiously, laughing when Shiro dumped her out of his lap for that, the others joining in. Shiro helped her up to sit between him and Keith, who scooted over to make room, taking the moment to breathe. The look in her eyes when she leaned into him was all affection, and Shiro felt his own heart swell with fondness, giving her a one-armed hug, so glad he was here with her and Allura and the boys.

* * *

Pidge's shirt came off ungracefully not long afterwards. She had a sports bra on underneath, which quickly followed, every eye on her admiring her two small breasts. Hunk and Lance couldn't take their eyes off of her, and Keith shot a quick look over her head to Shiro, who shrugged a little. Kissing was one thing, but breasts apparently didn't do much for him either. For her part, Pidge didn't try to cover herself even though one of her hands twitched as if it wanted to. 

That left them all shirtless except for Allura. Her eyes were roving appreciatively over Pidge too, probably reliving their kiss, which Keith admitted had been hot.

"Keith," Allura said unexpectedly, her eyes on him where a moment ago they hadn't been. He stifled the urge to look over his shoulder for the other Keith she must be talking to instead. He and Allura had barely spoken together directly. He kept still while she knee-walked across the circle to him, the fabric of her dress gathered in her hands to keep it out of her way. She'd cast off her cape and left it in a puddle of fabric behind her. When she reached him, she turned her back toward him, pulling her long, white hair over her shoulder to clear the nape of her neck and the clasps of her dress. "Would you?" 

Her head turned partway toward Keith, so after a moment's hesitation, he undid the main clasp at the top and then pulled the zipper-like seam down. He wondered briefly how she got herself into the dress without help, frowning when he encountered another clasp at the curve above her ass. Allura turned to face him, then let the fabric slide down her arms and off. She wasn't wearing a bra. Her breasts were fuller than Pidge's, a dusky brown a shade lighter than her arms and face. 

"Aw, no fair!" Lance groaned from behind her, making Keith smile a little. He had never understood what the fuss was about with breasts. He'd hated his and been glad when they were gone. Allura's were nice, he supposed, but she was beautiful with or without them. 

"I've kissed you already," Allura threw back over her shoulder at Lance. Like Pidge she seemed a little nervous but wasn't letting that stop her. "May I?" she asked, hand poised over Keith's chest. He nodded, but left his hands at his sides as her fingertips landed softly on his collarbone. Allura traced its run to his shoulder and then down over his chest stopping above his scars without touching. They weren't prominent but not so old they'd faded into his skin. Keith worried she would ask about them, and Allura opened her mouth with the question he was sure of it. He braced himself - but then she gave a little shake of her head and looked him in the eye, her hand pressing flat against his chest, thumb just brushing the numb scar tissue.

Keith couldn't read her. He wasn't sure he wanted to, and to forestall anymore possible question he leaned closer. Their kiss was calm but not quiet. Allura's mouth opened to his, but when their tongues met it was a languid exploration rather than the heated fervor he'd met Hunk with. Allura was smiling when they parted, and Keith was surprised to find that so was he.

"Who do you still have to kiss?" she asked after a moment.

"Pidge," he said, startling when Pidge suddenly popped up right there and with no warning smacked a wet kiss to his cheek, startling a laugh from him and everyone. Keith caught her before she could make a break for it and dragged her close to plant a proper kiss on her lips, there and gone, to the laughter of the others. Pidge was laughing too, and slung her arms around Keith and Allura's shoulders, hugging them close. 

He wasn't sure what to make of her, of them when Allura clasped his free hand, both of them up in his space, but a little part of Keith liked being included, liked that Pidge made him feel like she wanted to hug him, that despite their non-existent relationship, Allura was reaching out.

"Now you've kissed me!" Pidge proclaimed, and then pulled Allura close to kiss her again. Keith found himself dragged in for the ride by the elbow hooked around his neck. Suddenly two pairs of breasts were pressed against him, warm and unfamiliar. He managed to untangle himself from Pidge's headlock, giving Allura's hand a squeeze before letting them get wrapped up in each other again.

"Is it a free for all now?" Hunk asked when the girls finally broke apart.

"Who do you have left?" Lance was sitting up now. With his pants open. Keith swallowed hard, caught off guard by the sight and equally unable to tear his eyes away. They were drawn to the tip of Lance's cock, visible in in his fist with the shine of slick. Lance's hand pumped slowly, his mouth slightly open, and yeah, Keith was not expecting the sudden sting of attraction that made sweat break out all along his spine.

"Shiro and Allura," Hunk said.

"Time to take care of that then," Shiro's voice cut in. 

"Well, we know what has Keith's attention," Allura said, and it took him a moment to realize she was talking about him staring at Lance's dick like a man dying of thirst.

Lance's eyes caught his, and both his hand and his breathing sped up. Keith could almost feel it, the phantom pull of Lance's hand on his cock as his own arousal stirred, wetness pooling and an ache growing that wanted to be touched. Lance was the last person he had left to kiss, and the thought made Keith swallow hard. No laughing, he thought as they all rearranged themselves, him and Pidge crawling over to Lance while Shiro drew Hunk to join him and Allura.

"I think . . . " Lance paused to lick his lips. "I think I still need to kiss both of you."

Pidge and Keith looked at each other, and when Keith didn't move, unsure of his welcome even now, Pidge made the first move. She kissed Lance, pulling the hand from his dick to cup her bump of a breast. Lance gave a ragged moan, surging up against her, and when he ran his thumbnail over her nipple, Pidge groaned in turn. The kiss didn't last nearly as long as Keith thought it would. Pidge broke off, breathing hard. Lance didn't stop, trailing kisses down her throat to suckle where it joined her shoulder. His other hand unzipped her shorts and Pidge squirmed and bucked unexpectedly when he slipped his hand inside, throwing them all back in surprise. She had her hand pushing back against Lance's chest, the three of them frozen, staring at each other for a moment.

"I changed my mind," Pidge said through gasping breaths, "I changed my mind about not having sex."

"Yeah?" said Lance eagerly.

"But you two. You have to kiss first. So it's fair," she said. Lance looked over at Keith, his eyes dark with desire but the same uncertainty reflected back.

"No laughing," Keith told him. 

Lance shook his head. "No laughing. Let's show Pidge a good time."

Glancing at her watching the two of them, her skin flushed from her ears to to her chest, Keith nodded. He could get behind that. The two of them working together to bring her pleasure. "Yeah," he said. He nodded again at Lance, leaning in a little, his meaning clear. Lance met him halfway, kissing like he had something to prove. Keith met him just as fiercely, letting his hands touch the smooth skin of his chest dusted by downy hair. Lance's mouth was hot and wet and despite his reservations, Keith found himself lost in it, gasping for breath by the end of it.

Lance pulled back and studied Keith's face, his cock bobbing obscenely from his open pants. Keith tried not to be distracted, but he let himself admire Lance and tried to let him know without saying that he liked what he saw. It must have come through, because Lance relaxed fractionally, their truce sealed with a kiss.

Keith licked his lips, wondering if he dared ask, but his eyes were drawn back to Lance's cock. "Can I . . ." He stopped when Lance's eyes widened. "Nevermind." Keith started to scoot back but stopped when Lance's hand landed on his arm.

"Yes."

Keith's heart just about pounded its way out of his chest. But Lance was leaning back on his elbows, his cock thick and dark with desire. Keith's mouth watered. He wanted dick in his mouth more than anything. He crouched over Lance and licked him from root to tip, then before Lance could so much as shudder, closed his lips over the head and sucked. 

"Fuck!" Lance's fist beat on the floor.

Keith swirled his tongue along the underside of the ridge, slicking the way as he took more of Lance in his mouth until the head bumped up against his gag reflex. Up and back, he set a rhythm, loving the velvety feel of Lance's dick, the slightly bitter taste of pre-come, the musky scent of his body he inhaled when he took him as deep as he could go.

"Okay, okay, okay, stop, or I'm gonna!" Lance's voice was high and one hand patted Keith's hair to get his attention. Keith pulled off, his jaw aching, lips tingling. Lance was wrecked, eyes tightly closed, making and opening his fist. When he finally had ahold of himself, he pushed himself to sitting and stared at Keith for a moment.

"We can be friends now," he said, still out of breath, but glowing brightly.

Keith felt the last of his reservations drop, grinning back. "If I only I'd known that was all it took."

Beside them Pidge made a wordless whine, and Keith turned to find her with her hand down her shorts while she'd watched them. She was flushed and glowing too. Keith wanted to laugh, feeling like he was alight and burning with them. 

"I think that's our job," Lance said pulling her hand away with one of his and bringing it to his mouth to lick her juices off her fingers.

"Oh fuck," Pidge gasped, startling Keith enough that he grinned. Pidge looked as off-balance as he felt, which was strangely grounding. Behind them he could hear the others panting, the wet sounds of more kissing. Shiro's voice murmuring, a groan from Hunk, a hitching breath from Allura. Watching Lance drive Pidge mad as he lapped at her fingers, Keith smelled the scent of her arousal, of sex all around them, of his own. His mouth watered again, taking in the concentration on Lance's face, Pidge's half lidded eyes. Her other hand reached for him, landing on his forearm with a grip that demanded attention. Before he thought about it too hard, he captured Pidge's mouth in a proper kiss - he was either with them in this or he wasn't - and pushed her shorts and underwear down to her knees.

* * *

Allura's kiss was wet and open mouthed. Shiro's came with hands that pushed down Hunk's pants and cupped his cock and balls through his underwear with two hands. Hunk made an embarrassing sound of pleasure. His cotton briefs felt bruising against his sensitive dick, and Hunk had to fight to keep himself from humping against Shiro's hand.

He was still a little in denial that this was happening. Shiro and Allura kissing him, he meant, not the Pocky game turned orgy. Oh god, they are having the orgy after all. He was pretty sure from the sounds behind him that Pidge and Keith were cool with it. He hoped they were cool with it - and oh, oh, Hunk squeezed his eyes shut tight and forgot how to breathe. That was Shiro's hand slipping under the waistband of his briefs, cradling his balls in the palm of his hand and dragging his fingers along the underside of his cock. Hunk was so hard and he wanted to come so bad.

Desperately he pushed the rest of his clothes down, wiggling a bit awkwardly to get them off since they were all kneeling. Shiro helped him, holding his dick in a loose grip. His metal hand was cool against Hunk's legs as it trailed up to his waist, and Hunk opened his eyes, feeling all tingly and like he was on a very dangerous edge. Shiro was smiling at him, but it wasn't his usual I-have-confidence-in-you-smile that Hunk usually got. His lips were parted slightly and this smile was hungry.

"You want us to jerk you off?" he asked Hunk, which about made him combust to hear such a dirty suggestion coming out of Shiro's mouth.

"Oh god."

Shiro took that for a yes, and said, "Allura, here," and helped her fold her long fingers around Hunk's cock.

"Oh, quiznack!" he said this time, hoping he was using that right. Allura was fascinated, staring at his cock like she'd never seen one before, and oh, oh, maybe she hadn't, at least not a human one, and Hunk was about to melt from the hotness of that thought.

"You want a firm grip," Shiro told her, "but not too tight." His hand wrapped around hers, and then they were moving and the sweet friction made Hunk's thoughts scatter entirely. They pumped Hunk's cock with not quite enough pressure, which was starting to drive him out of his mind. One look at Shiro who was watching him back, reading his every facial tick, and Hunk was convinced that it was on purpose. And Allura - bare-breasted, mouth open, and a little bit of her tongue sticking out in concentration, her eyes flicking from Hunk's face to his dick. Fuck, she was beautiful. 

The little curl of pleasure was building, dancing tantalizingly on his nerves. Hunk was so wound up, so turned on, he just needed a little bit more -

"And I think that's good for now," Shiro said, the fucking bastard. Hunk whined when their hands pulled away, another embarrassing sound from deep in his chest. He felt himself flush and desperately chased after their hands, his hip bucking forward of their own accord, but Shiro caught him by the shoulders, planted his mouth on Hunk's, his tongue sweeping inside like it belonged there, and god, that was good too, and all Hunk wanted was to come. 

His eyes had fallen closed as the kiss continued, but then they popped open when a third mouth joined them. Allura's tongue swiped at the corner of his mouth and her breasts pushed flush against his bare chest. Hunk's heart was going a mile a minute, and he didn't know which way to turn. Shiro's hands were trailing up and down his sides, skimming the joins of his thighs but retreating before they reached his aching cock.

Allura's mouth took his in full. Shiro retreated, but his hands didn't stop. Allura had shed the rest of her dress somewhere in there, and she shuddered when Hunk swept his hand from her shoulder to the slope of her ass, daring as he brought his hand down to cup one cheek in his hand. She rolled up against him and shuddered, a movement he mimicked as his cock brushed the silky skin of her belly.

"So uh," Hunk started, pulling back a little. Wanting, but words escaped him. Shiro had moved behind him, wrapping his arms around him, one metal, one flesh, two sensations that didn't help with asking for more. Nor did the nip of teeth at his neck. "Shiro!" Hunk gasped.

"I've got you," Shiro said.

"Oh!" Allura inhaled all of a sudden, her attention caught behind Hunk at whatever the other three were doing to make those noises. Pidge, or maybe Lance, Hunk craned his head to see and would have come right then and there at the sight before him if Shiro hadn't taken the base of his cock in hand, making a tight ring of his fingers that did nothing to cut off his desperate need.

Pidge was laid out naked on her back, her legs spread to either side of Keith's shoulders, his face buried in her pussy. The noises she was making, the little movements of her hips, held down by Keith's hand on her belly. Above him, Lance was sucking on one nipple with Pidge's hand in his hair holding him to her. 

"Shiro," Hunk whined. He was sweating. He just needed a little friction, but Shiro only touched him with that single ring of fingers that kept him from coming.

"Shh," he said, running a soothing hand down Hunk's flank. "Watch."

* * *

Pidge had never had two boys so intent on pleasing her go down on her before. Keith's tongue lapped at her slit, pressing at her clit long enough for the pressure to build before he fell back and licked up through her pussy again. Every now and then, his tongue caught on her entrance which ached with need, her inner muscles gaping for anything to clutch at, but so far nothing. No tongue, no fingers, just the maddening pace of pleasure built up and interrupted, over and over again, accented by Lance suckling her tit, gently worrying her nipple with his teeth to send tingles through her.

He switched to her other breast, sucking this time, and Pidge raked her fingers through his hair, clutching at the strands, fingers damp with his sweat. She could feel him rocking, his own cock ignored for the moment as he moaned against her, which really, she had a solution for that.

"Keith, Keith." Pidge gently shoved Lance away. His eyes were glazed with lust when he looked up. Between her legs, Keith's lips glistened obscenely from where he'd licked her. She made a hand gesture that was supposed to convey where she wanted them, but neither of them followed. "Keith, here," she said, getting a hold of his upper arm and tugging. "Lance, fuck me."

Lance and Keith looked at each other and then they scrambled to switch places. Keith shed his pants and crawled straight on top of Pidge when she didn't let him go, leaving a trail of slick on her belly from his pussy that was as sopping wet as Pidge's. Lance darted in when he was straddling her chest, licking her juices from Keith's lips with a moan, and fuck, fuck, he was tasting her. Pidge groaned again, needing him to fuck her, needing Keith to sit on her face so she could taste him and make him writhe.

Keith was unshaven, like her, a thick heady scent of sex permeating from between wiry hair. He braced himself on all fours above her, spreading his knees wide as she tugged on his thighs till he was just where she wanted him. He was so wet, coating her chin with the first flat swipe of her tongue from his cunt to his clit.

"Oh fuck, Pidge!" Keith's voice was hoarse and went straight to her throbbing core. His hips twitched, still as much by his own control has her hand gripping the strong muscles of his thighs. Her hands were too small to really hold him, but he kept still for her, pressing down but not so much she couldn't breathe as Pidge licked between his folds again, lapping after the sensational taste of him, rooting for his clit. She knew when she found it because Keith bucked hard, cursing again, and Pidge grinned and would have laughed if she wasn't busy laving that spot with her tongue.

She was so lost in Keith's pussy that the blunt head of Lance's cock slowly pushing into her took her by surprise. Pidge curled a little, her knees gripping Lance's slim hips.

"Oh Pidge, oh fuck, you're so wet, so tight," Lance babbled. The thick drag of his cock pressing into her, the stretch that bordered on too much, but Lance was good, he went slow, the pleasure that threatened to short out her brain, building up, the taste of Keith on her tongue, all of it pooled inside of her, sparking against the two of them, like their very essences mingled with hers. Keith shifted away, but Pidge barely noticed because Lance kept pressing in, filling her up everywhere she needed him, better than the last time she'd tried sex. Then Keith was kissing her shoulder, behind her ear, little biting kisses that made Pidge shudder, and then Lance bottomed out, hips grinding against her before pulling out and fucking back in. He thrust slowly at first, then faster, hips snapping. 

Lance was closer than she was, she knew it, could feel it. His dick felt amazing and she spread her legs wider for him, but the angle wasn't quite there for him to go as deep as she wanted. She didn't care. She cared too much. She wanted him to come in her, and urged him faster, trusting him to make it as good as he could, but they'd all been on the edge for so long already, it wasn't long before Lance was gripping her hips hard enough to bruise and tumbling over the edge with a last few frantic thrusts, gasping for breath, his mouth finding hers at the end. 

Pidge's hips stuttered as she tried to find her own release but it slipped from her, and she let her head fall back on the mat feeling full and wanting at the same time.

"Okay?" Lance asked her. "Did you . . .?"

"Close but no," she said, smiling at him. Lance frowned and lifted his weight off of her. Keith's hands ran through her hair. "I'm glad it was you," she told Lance, smoothing a finger through the frown on his forehead.

"I can . . ." He started to reach down, but Keith on her other side halted his progress, nodding at the trio of Allura, Shiro, and Hunk who'd been watching.

"We're a team, remember?" Keith said.

"The team that fucks together, stays together?"

"Something like that." Keith grinned first at Lance then her. "What do you say, Pidge?"

She was still buzzing, her skin sensitive when Keith ran a hand down her arm to catch her hand and pull her to sitting. Pidge didn't let go of his hand, warm and grounding, his own unsated need reflected in his his eyes. "Oh hell yes."

* * *

"Can you stay hard for her?" Shiro asked in Hunk's ear. Hunks shuddered, so close, but so far because Shiro was still holding his cock by the base to keep him from jizzing, his metal arm effortlessly cradling Hunk against him. 

Hunk groaned, feeling lightheaded and feeling Shiro's covered hard-on press intimately against his ass "Not if you keep talking like that in my ear."

Allura squeezed his hand tighter in a crushing white-knuckled grip. "I want to try that," she breathed as the other three turned toward them. Lance dropped his head back on the mat, lying spreadeagled and spent, his cock softening. Allura crawled over between his spread legs and placed a kiss on the inside of his thigh. Lance jerked, a shudder running through him, eyes wide as he lifted up to stare at her in incomprehension. "You're beautiful," Allura said, making his eyes go wider. He propped himself up on his elbows and watched as Allura laid another kiss on his thigh, murmuring when she looked at his cock, "Not there, still sensitive. Here," he gestured vaguely upward, then let his head thump back with a groan when she placed a wet kiss to his belly.

Keith and Pidge, however, both were in search of release right now. Pidge especially was on the edge, and Hunk couldn't take his eyes off of her. She was trembling a little, looking a little wild around the eyes as she caught sight of Hunk's hard cock that was begging for attention.

"Hunk," she said, half a question, and before she had to say more, he was reaching for her.

"Yes. Yes of course. Please. Oh my god that was so hot. You were so beautiful and Lance and Keith, and I love you guys so much. Shiro, please, I need, I need-"

Shiro loosed his hold on Hunk and helped steady him when he sobbed in relief. Hunk got his hands on Pidge and pulled her up against him into a hug that he needed as much as she did. Pidge kissed his chest where she could reach, frantic little kisses that did nothing to help calm Hunk down, even when he caught her lips in his own for a reprise of their earlier kiss. 

Hunk's cock was trapped between them, and every movement sent a little thrill through him. It wasn't long till they pulled apart. Pidge got a hand between them and inhaled sharply when her fingers didn't quite meet when she grasped him in her hand. Hunk sucked in a breath of his own, every fiber of his being focusing on staying in control. He wanted to make it good for her.

"Give me a moment," he said, words stumbling in his mouth. Pidge let go and nodded, running her hand through her hair, and for a moment the two of them just breathed. When Hunk felt a little bit more level, he nodded, and Pidge leaned up to kiss him again, just a press of lips, and then she turned around on all fours and presented her ass to him, legs open and inviting.

"Like this," she said, looking over her shoulder at him, and he could practically feel her nerves at being so vulnerable warring with her desire. He was touched that she trusted him. Also turned on as fuck. Her pussy was pink and perfect, her thighs smeared with slick. With a hand on her ass, Hunk ran a thumb through the mess at her entrance, Pidge's juices mixed with Lance's semen and fuck, fuck, he was going to be her sloppy seconds, joining her where Lance had fucked her. Hunk lined himself up, and she was so wet he slipped right in. Pidge groaned, pushing back against him. His dick was bigger than Lance's, thicker, so her pussy still had to stretch around him, and it was so tight and hot and wet that Hunk had to stop when he bottomed out to just breathe.

"Fuck. Hunk. You're so big, you're filling me up. Oh fuck," Pidge babbled. "I need you to fuck me."

He pulled out all the way to the tip and then pushed back in, faster this time, loving the sounds Pidge made, loving watching her take his dick like she was made for it. He fucked in again, and then, when one of her hands went to her clit, he reached around and let her guide his hand to where she needed it. His fingers slid through her folds while he fucked her, Pidge making gasping noises that sent Hunk's building pleasure spiraling higher. He felt lost in it, the world reduced to his cock, Pidge, and the noises around them, both holding him together and taking him apart.

Next to them, Allura was sitting reversed on Lance's face, his tongue lapping through her folds while she licked the skin around his dick, which was beginning to twitch with renewed interest. Keith had crawled into Shiro's lap to complete the third corner of the triangle. Hunk felt them all. All of them felt him. The pleasure building and coiling them all together.

* * *

Shiro barely had a chance to see Hunk kiss Pidge before Keith was taking his head in his hands, saying, "Shiro, me too. I want you to, I want -" against his lips. Then they were kissing, and Keith's hands were at his belt, at his zipper, pushing his pants down. Shiro helped him until they were both naked, kneeling flush together with Shiro's cock pressed into Keith's belly, Keith's pubic hair tickling his balls. He poured everything into the kiss, swallowed Keith's gasps.

"Where do you want me?" he managed after a minute. "Front door or back?" he clarified when Keith only grunted in reply.

"I don't care. Both. Just. I want you."

"You have me." Shiro kissed him again. He ran his fingers down Keith's bare back and then down the crack of his ass. Keith keened when he traced his pucker and pressed ever so slightly against the wrinkled skin. They had no lube with them, so that might have to wait, but then Shiro pressed his fingers farther where the slipped without prompting into Keith's sopping pussy. Yeah, okay. He could work with that.

He gathered Keith's slick on his fingers, spreading it around up to his clit and back to his ass hole. Keith spread his legs for him, and fuck that was hot, seeing him so far gone that he wanted it so shamelessly. Shiro sat back on his heels, drawing Keith down to straddle him as he worked. His own cock throbbed, so close to that heat, but Shiro ignored it as best he could, focusing on Keith, whose hips didn't know whether to chase his hand forward or back. 

Slowly, so slowly, after another pass to coat his fingers into Keith's cunt, Shiro pressed one finger against his pucker. Keith's head hit his shoulder with a muffled cry when Shiro breached him, sliding his finger in and out against the sensitive ring of muscle until he was in to the first knuckle. He curled his finger, just slightly, to rub against Keith's inner walls.

"Shiro!" Keith's voice was hoarse, desperate. "That feels. Fuck. Fuck. More. I need more."

Shiro was happy to oblige him, rocking his finger deeper and deeper until it was all the way in. With little thrusts, he moved it in and out, Keith rocking back to meet each one. His slit got wetter, and Shiro's cock between them slipped through his folds, the blunt head nudging into Keith's clit, making him moan and writhe even more. The sound went straight to Shiro's cock. He was so beautiful. So hot and ready, and Shiro wrapped his metal arm around him to hold him even closer, breathing in hair as he buried his face in Keith's neck.

"Can I fuck your cunt?" he asked, wrenching another deep groan from Keith who tightened around his finger. It would be a first for Shiro, and while he ached to fuck Keith's tight little ass, the lack of lube was going to be a problem, especially now that his finger wasn't going anywhere till this was over. More than that, though, it was Keith, complicated, brilliant Keith, and Shiro wanted to know that part of him too.

"Fuck. Yes."

Shiro lost no time. He might have had better control than Hunk, but he'd watched Keith lick Pidge's pussy, watched him sit on her face while Lance pounded into Pidge, whose mewling sounds of pleasure had gone straight to his dick. They were echoed only a few feet away where Pidge was on all fours, head resting on her folded forearms while Hunk held her ass and pounded into her from behind with steady but building grunts. Hunk's eyes were on him and Keith, on his finger in Keith's ass, and then as Shiro shifted them, on his cock sliding home.

"Oh fuck, oh, oh, Hunk, fuck," Pidge voice went high and tight. Then she was shoving herself back on on Hunk's cock as he fucked her faster, babbling incoherent noises as he came, Pidge tumbling after with a cry that sounded like a roar.

Beside them Allura let out a throaty cry, muffled slightly by Lance's cock in her mouth. She was on top of him, right where she'd wanted to be, with her pussy in Lance's face and his arms wrapped around her thighs while his tongue worked her.

Shiro had to look away before the noise of them taking their pleasure made him come too soon. He'd frozen with just the tip of his dick throbbing in Keith's hot passage, primed with need in tight wet heat that gripped him like a silky glove. He breathed in the musky scene of sex that was everywhere. He nosed under Keith's hair to kiss his neck. As Pidge and Hunk collapsed into an exhausted heap, and Allura cried out as she met her climax, he steadied, flexed his finger in Keith's ass and then rocked his hips to slide deeper.

Keith let out a long exhale as Shiro stretched him. On top, Keith had the leverage to set the pace and he didn't waver, sliding down onto Shiro till he was fully seated and gasping when the movement pulled against Shiro's finger in his ass. Shiro's spine was alight with sparks as Keith clenched around his cock and finger both. The hot slide along Shiro's cock gave where he wasn't used to it giving, but nonetheless stealing his breath away.

This time it was Shiro gasping Keith's name, his hips rocking of their own accord, wanting to go deeper. Through the thin membrane his finger in Keith's ass rubbed against his cock, making Keith dig his fingers into his shoulders and squirm in his lap. Keith drew up on his knees til only the tip of Shiro's cock was in him, then slammed home again, setting a fast pace that only went faster as Keith got closer, working himself into a frenzy on Shiro's cock. Shiro's finger in his ass slipped deeper, and he thought about adding a second, but he was too close. It took everything Shiro had left to hold himself off so he could give Keith what he needed, even as his own pleasure mounted, building like a storm between them. 

When Keith came it was with a cry that he muffled in Shiro's shoulder, teeth grazing against the meat of the muscle. His hips snapped furiously and then ground so Shiro's cock would go deeper. His inner walls clenched around Shiro, and that was it for him. He fucked up as hard as he could, sparks exploding behind his eyelids as he came inside Keith, wave after wave of pleasure bursting over him, singing down his nerves. He hugged Keith to him, their bodies sticky with a prickling sheen of sweat, and he never wanted to let him go. 

Keith hugged him back just as fiercely. "Shiro," he whispered in his ear, his hair tickling Shiro's jaw. He placed a kiss behind Shiro's ear so tenderly that even though he said nothing else, Shiro felt it shudder through to his heart.

* * *

They collapsed in a heap at last. Lance was happy but exhausted. So exhausted. He and Allura shifted closer to Hunk and Pidge, the girls ending up tucked in between the two of them while they watched Shiro and Keith finish in a hot grunting mess of manhood as they tried to crawl into each other's skin. 

Lance's skin buzzed every time Allura shifted in his arms, the little spoon to his big spoon, naked and glorious. He was so cozy wrapped around her, and he pulled her even snugger against him, his forearm brushing her right breast while his hand cupped her left, fingers twitching in small designs that had her practically purring in his arms. Pidge was on her back next to her, her tummy even with Allura's head as Pidge's was pillowed in Hunk's lap. Hunk sat leaned back on one arm, the hand closer to them alternately petting though Pidge's hair, then Allura's, then Lance's. When his fingernails scratched lightly against Lance's scalp, Lance felt his toes curl as tingles ran all through him. They were all a mess, a lovely disheveled and satisfied mess.

When Shiro and Keith joined them, they closed the little circle, or probably triangle was better, with Keith spooning up behind Shiro, their heads at Allura's knee and legs tangled by Hunk's. In the middle, Pidge draped her legs over their waists, and they all scooted a little closer together. Lance felt fingers trace a pattern on his thigh, down to his knee and back up, and couldn't tell if it was Shiro or Keith and then decided it didn't matter.

No one wanted to break the spell of dazed silence that had fallen over them. Hunk continued to stroke their hair, Allura was rubbing Pidge's belly, Shiro and Keith were holding hands atop Pidge's knee that was draped over them, and with the arm Allura was using as a pillow, Lance brushed his fingers against Hunk's hip. He shivered, feeling goosebumps break out where his skin had cooled.

"We need blankets," he said at last.

"Or pillows," said Keith.

"Definitely a shower," said Pidge, and like that the spell was broken as they all laughed.

"So, that was . . ." Hunk trailed off with an abashed smile. "I can't believe we did that."

"The orgy was your idea," Lance pointed out.

"Yeah, but that was for kissing," Hunk protested.

"Do all games of Pocky end this way?" Allura asked, her hand leaving Pidge long enough to stroke her fingers through Shiro's bangs, brushing them out of his eyes.

"Yeah, Shiro, do you always play Pocky this way?" Pidge snickered.

"This is an exception," he said, chuckling. "It definitely wasn't the direction I thought the day would go in."

"But it was good, right?" Keith asked quietly from behind him. "I know you were worried."

"I was. I didn't want anyone hurt." Shiro brought their clasped hands up for a kiss, then craned his neck to place a kiss on Allura's knee. "The last thing I want is for any of you to get hurt." His words coiled like a promise.

"I was nervous," Pidge admitted. "But I'm glad we did it. I've never had sex that felt that way before. Like we were all, I don't know, connected. Like I could feel how good everyone was feeling and that made everything more intense."

"Like the ingredients of a sandwich all coming together," Hunk agreed. More than just Lance's head popped up to stare at him. "What? It's past lunchtime, I'm hungry, okay? You all made me work up an appetite."

"You're such a weirdo," Lance said but fondly, and got a scritch to his head in response from Hunk.

"It may be the Voltron bond coming into play," Allura suggested, and as if in response the Castle reverberated with the roar of the Lions. 

They all froze, and then when the cozy feeling in the back of Lance's mind brightened into a contented purr, he could _feel_ the others feel it too. Heard it in the happy chuckles and saw it in their grins. Joy spilled over and around him, his fellow paladins, and Allura, joy of coming together, belonging together. 

"I guess that's a yes."

"One way to find out," Shiro said.

"Tomorrow," the rest of them chorused.

"All right," Shiro said warm and content. "Tomorrow."

* * *

the end


End file.
